In Another Land
by CloudFyre
Summary: After returning from work one day, Joshua tries to fall asleep but instead ends up in a free fall into Equestria. How will he explain his presence to the mane six, and how will he get home? Sequel will be posted here as well. Read the foreword for info.
1. Chapter 1: The Beginning

Chapter 1: The Beginning

A dark grey sky provided a steady rain that soaked the ground by the time I got home. I locked my car, walked inside, and headed upstairs. I was tired, it had been a long day at work, I still had college work to catch up on, and I hadn't slept well the last night. I didn't even bother to change into evening clothes, or even to take off my sweatshirt. I just flipped the light switch off in my room and collapsed on the bed, or what should have been my bed. I never actually hit the bed. I just kept falling.

Me? Well I guess I could just be considered an average Brony. I was almost 18 and almost precisely six feet tall with deep green eyes and brown hair. A person who, like tens of thousands of others, had grown to like the My Little Pony series. If you would have told me that I would have been watching My Little Pony 6 months ago, I would have blown it off as a poor joke.

But somehow, it grabbed my attention. It was different than all of the other shows out there. No violence, no crass language, but yet at the same time, was fun to watch and also had a good storyline. What made it so good? Maybe it was the sheer girliness mixed with references only us as computer geeks would get. Or maybe it was the "Oh-no-this-is-really-embarassing-I-can't-look-but-I-should-be-able-to-at-my-age" tension. Either way, I was hooked.

With a sudden wind flying at my face, a rush of adrenaline flew through my system. I was wide awake now, and the ground was coming up fast. Really fast. I braced myself and with a sharp CRACK my body connected with a low lying tree branch, snapping it off. I continued my descent another ten feet or so until I hit the ground. Surprisingly, I managed to pull myself up and brush myself off. The injuries weren't terrible, but I would be sore for a couple days at least.

Slightly dazed, I heard some voices in the distance.

"Did anybody else see that?" An exicted voice cried out.

"No, what was it?" another chimed in.

"I'm not really sure, I'll go check it out." The first replied.

"I…I think I'll just stay here, where it's _safe_." Another one whispered.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. I glanced over, and it was what appeared to be a pony.

Two more followed. But these weren't just any ponies; I realized it was Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy. They were looking for something, which I assumed was me.

I was dumbfounded, and I figured that I was dreaming. Three of the mane six were right in front of my face. There was no way it could be real, and yet…I wanted to believe that it was. I looked again, and then felt my side where I had hit the branch. It stung like crazy. This was definitely real.

I forced myself up and waved at them from where I was standing. "Hey guys!"

That was a mistake. Fluttershy screamed, jumped up, and hid under a bush. So much for first impressions…

"Look, I'm not going to-" I managed to glance over to my left in time to see a beam of light headed my direction. I stepped back just in time, and it flew by me. Twilight's was preparing some sort of spell. There were five more magic bolts in quick succession, and I managed to dodge all but the last one.

When the bolt hit me, I was paralyzed, held firmly in place.

"Twilight I'm not here to-" A sharp blow caught me in my side as Rainbow Dash tackled me (just for good measure).

Rainbow Dash stared me down. "Alright, who are you...and what exactly are you?"

Trying to pick myself up (a little hard when you have a pony sitting on top of you). "If I can finish my sentence, we can start with names I guess. I'm Joshua, but you can call me Josh if you want to. And I happen to be a bit…lost."

"Alright, Josh is it? What are you doing here?" Twilight said with a frown.

"I just said, I really don't know exactly where I am…"

"What WERE you doing until you got lost?"

"Believe it or not, I was trying to get some sleep. The last thing I remember was falling onto my bed, and I wound up flying through the sky and making a pretty hard landing."

"You can explain it to us at the library I guess." Twilight said. "We're going back to Ponyville, and you are going with us."

Considering that I couldn't really argue since I was being held in place by a spell, I went along with them. Twilight used a spell to hold my arms at my sides while I rode on Rainbow Dash.

The whole way there I was being flooded with questions, some of which were a little hard to answer. The ride wasn't exactly smooth, and I was still sore from my freefall.

Twilight started the conversation. "Let's start with some basics. What exactly are you…Josh? And how do you know our names?"

"I'm a human, but I take it from your first reactions that none of you have met a human before."

It was a unanimous "no".

"And I can't really explain to you how I know so much…but I do know a bit about you guys."

I looked at Twilight. "You're Twilight Sparkle, and you studied as a student of Princess Celestia in Canterlot. I'm currently sitting on Rainbow Dash, one of the only ponies to ever perform a Sonic Rainboom, and the shy one over there is Fluttershy, who has a natural ability to relate to animals."

I also went over some of the things that had happened in season one of the TV show, and I also covered the Discord events of season 2.

"…and then you all used the Elements of Harmony to seal Discord in stone. Did I get all of that right?"

Twilight was genuinely impressed. "Yes you did, with astonishing detail. How do you know so much about us? We've never even met before."

"You're right." I said with a sigh. "We haven't met before. I don't think you would really understand it even if I did explain it…"

"At least try." Twilight said irritably.

I pondered the question for a moment. "Well how can I explain this…You guys have a storybook called 'The Mare in the Moon' right?"

"You know that story?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes, in a manner of sorts. You all thought that it was just an old ponies tale until it actually came true, right? I guess in the same way, we have stories about you ponies, but I would have never thought that this place was real. This is Equestria isn't it?"

Twilight giggled. "Of course it is silly! Where else would it be?"

Author's Notes:

I had a hard time choosing how "I" should meet the mane six; usually people do something where the mane six find the character unconscious somewhere. I tried to change this a little, so while the mane six were looking for me, I was the one who called out to them.

I'm not sure if it was a great idea, but I went with it anyways.


	2. Chapter 2: Day 1 and an Evening Away

Chapter 2: Day 1 and an Evening Away From Home

Applejack was waiting for us at the library. Spike was apparently away running errands for Twilight.

"Where in tarnation were you guys? And what is that?"

"I'm Josh. Nice to meet you." I said in a sarcastic tone.

"He can talk too? That's pretty nifty."

We walked inside and Apple Jack tied my arms to my sides with rope so that Twilight didn't have to keep me constrained with a spell.

There was a surprising amount of books and not much furniture on the ground floor, but the upstairs looked pretty well furnished. We proceeded upstairs into the living area. It was well lit due to a massive window that took in sunlight. I then had four inquisitive and slightly suspicious ponies standing over me.

"Alright, start from the beginning. Exactly who, and what are you, and what are you doing here? You seem to know quite a bit about us, now we want to know some things about you." Applejack said.

"That seems fair enough. I'm Joshua, and as far as I can tell, I'm from a completely different dimension. All I can really remember is that I was incredibly tired and then I suddenly started falling. I hit a tree branch, then toppled to the ground. I'm surprised that I wasn't hurt more than I am…"

"You were hurt? Let me see." Twilight said.

I lifted up my right arm and lifted my shirt up. The expressions on their faces were priceless.

"You don't have any hair on your body! Why in the world-"

"No, no I don't. That's regular for us as humans. You don't happen to have any bandages around do you?"

Twilight's horn glowed and she pulled some things off of a nearby shelf before procuring a roll of bandages along with some paper and ink.

"How do you manage to keep warm then?" Twilight inquired.

I pulled at my clothes. "Well, this is my sweatshirt and it's what keeps me warm in more serious conditions." I unzipped it and took it off. On a regular day I just wear a shirt and pants."

"…Pants?" Applejack asked. "What do those do?"

"They are there to keep my legs warm, and also has pockets to hold objects that I need to carry around with me."

"I see…" Twilight was scribbling down some notes. "Are you a young human, or are you older?"

"I'm almost 18, which I guess would be considered relatively young for a human, but I'm on the taller end."

I stood around about a foot taller than most of the ponies; I had thought that they would be shorter. Twilight was furiously creating notes about humans, and the whole time I was watching her levitate the quill.

"How does that work?" I motioned to the floating quill.

Twilight looked bewildered. "You mean you humans don't know how to write?"

I rolled my eyes. "That's not what I meant. I was wondering how you got the quill to float. It's magic right?"

Twilight motioned to her horn. "All unicorns and alicorns can use magic due to their horn in combination with another internal organ. It requires a great deal of focus and concentration."

"The reason I ask is that we actually don't have magic where I come from."

Twilight was even more amazed. "What? How do you move the stars around then?"

"That's just it, we don't have magic, so we can't use it to move the stars. The stars do move though, that's not a problem."

Twilight looked as if her head was going to explode from questions. "No magic but you can still move the stars? How in the world do-"

I cut in before she could get started. "Look, it's not really important at the moment, and when I get the time I'll try to explain it to you. Just for now, can we focus on the problem at hand?"

Twilight gave a heavy sigh. "Oh all right…"

By the time they were done asking questions, it was well past noon.

"Anypony here want to get some grub?" Applejack asked.

"That sounds good right about now." Twilight replied.

I looked up at them. "Before we go, can you guys take this rope off?"

There was a bit of a disagreement as to what exactly they were going to do with me, but eventually the agreed to take the ropes off. It was also agreed that, for at least the first couple days, I would join them in whatever they happened to be doing.

As for lunch, we settled on a nearby outdoor restaurant a couple blocks away. Twilight and Fluttershy ordered apple pie, Applejack ordered an apple cupcake and lemonade, and Rainbow Dash ordered a form of strawberry shortcake. I was still in a bit of a shock from landing in Ponyville and I didn't have much of an appetite.

"How can you guys just have all that sugar? Isn't that like…bad for you?"

"Not at all." Twilight said. "This is what we normally have. Besides, we need our sweets; it's part of our regular diet."

I sat there thinking about it. "You guys are lucky. Where I come from, we need to watch our sugar intake. Having more than two or three cupcakes could make some ponies sick later, but others have more of a resistance to it."

"Sugar? Making somepony sick? You DO live in a crazy place." Rainbow Dash said in astonishment.

I smiled. "You have no idea."

"So, at 3:00 this afternoon we are getting to meet up with Pinkie Pie and Rarity to have our hooves polished. You're going to have to come with us." Twilight said.

"That's fine, I'll just watch I guess."

A while later we met up with Rarity and Pinkie Pie outside the hoof salon, both of whom had different reactions to seeing me.

Rarity took it quite calmly: "Oh? Who is that? And why are you wearing black? That's not a cheery color…"

I hadn't even thought about my clothes yet, and they were a bit of a mess from my earlier adventures. "I'm Joshua, and I think I'll be staying around here for a while until I can find a way to get home…

Pinkie took a more direct approach: "HEY! I've never seen a pony like you before! Where did YOU come from? What do you like to do in your free time? Have you ever played the game…" and so on.

I had to retell my whole story to them. It took a while, but they seemed satisfied with it.

I found that hoof polishing is comparable to humans getting their nails done, and that it's actually pretty close to the same process. In the lulls where they were waiting, I offered to answer any other questions they might have. Rainbow Dash was the first to speak up.

"…So Josh…" Rainbow Dash began.

"…Yes?"

"You told us that you knew about us from stories you guys have. What do these stories exactly say about us? I mean, is it good, bad, or something completely different? Like, am I as AWESOME as I am here?"

Twilight and Rarity both rolled their eyes in unison.

I chuckled at Rainbow Dash's enthusiasm. "The original stories explain how you all became the best of friends, and all of the lessons that you learn about friendship."

I figured I would skip most of the fanfiction stories/ideas, as those weren't exactly canon material.

"Although…" I smiled at Rainbow Dash. "In some of the fan-made stories, people pair you and Scootaloo up as sisters."

"WHAT?" Rainbow Dash almost jumped right out of her chair, and everyone else had a good laugh.

By the time they were done, it was about five in the afternoon. We walked in the door of the library, and I gave Spike quite the scare.

"Hey Twili-WHOAH WHAT IS THAT?"

I just smiled. "I'm Joshua. You must be Spike."

Spike had the usual questions I had been asked all day, so after answering things like "What are you?", "How did you know my name?", and "What are you doing here?" we got down to figuring out where I was going to spend the night.

"Look, I can sleep almost anywhere. I've slept on wood floors, concrete pads…it really won't matter all that much to me. As long as I have a pillow I'll be fine, but even then I don't really need one.

Rarity was the first to offer. "I can get you a pillow and a blanket for wherever it is that you'll be staying. I have dresses strewn all over the floor for this evening, but you can stay at the Boutique tomorrow night if you would like."

"Um, well, I guess you can stay at my house for tonight…" Fluttershy offered.

I felt bad imposing on them, but staying outside when the temperature dropped to near freezing levels wasn't an option.

After we had chocolate cupcakes and apple juice (supplied by Pinkie Pie and Applejack respectively), we all split up for the evening.

As Fluttershy and I walked back to her house, I asked her about some of the locations that the TV show mentioned. (I never actually told any of them about the TV shows, I just said that they were stories we had.)

"So Fluttershy…where exactly am I? I understand that I'm in Ponyville, but where are some local landmarks around here?"

"Um, well, from Ponyville, you can go west if you want to go to the Everfree Forest, you head southwest if you want to see the hills of Sweet Apple Acres, and my house is in between the forest and Sweet Apple Acres.

"Where is Canterlot from here?"

"Oh, it's a ways that way." She pointed up and to the northeast, but I didn't see anything except for clouds, mountains, and fog. She went on to explain that Canterlot is above the clouds on one of the highest mountains; high enough to overlook all of Equestria but close enough so that the journey wasn't too long to make.

When we were inside, she explained that some of the animals had already left to head south for the winter. While she was busy feeding some of the animals upstairs, I was busy taking mental notes. Fluttershy's house was well furnished, with a fireplace in the middle of the room. There was a winding staircase that went around the chimney, and the all of the colors were an earthen tone; greens and browns were the dominant colors.

I started a fire and sat down in front of it, pondering what had happened that day. I had fallen onto Equestria, met the mane six, but still had no idea how to get back home. I heard Fluttershy walk back downstairs after a while and she watched me for the longest time. I could tell something was on her mind, but she wasn't quite ready to say it.

Eventually she stepped forward and curled up near the fire. "Josh, what is it like where you come from?"

"It is much different than Equestria, I'll tell you that. Where I come from, about 70% of the planet is covered with water and oceans, and there are about seven billion humans on the planet's surface."

The number stunned her. "Se…Seven billion? Are there any ponies in your land?" she said inquisitively.

"Yes, but not like the ones here. They don't speak our language, and what they do speak, we humans can't understand. It's not the same, and although earth ponies exist, pegasi, unicorns, and alicorns don't exist." I went on to explain the deep green and densely clouded regions of the northwest United States, the vast expanses of plains on the deserts of Africa, and the spectacular mountains of Europe.

"That sounds amazing…"

She looked like she was done asking questions, so I took the opportunity to ask one myself.

"Fluttershy, can I ask you for a favor?" I asked sheepishly.

She looked up with questioning eyes. "What is it?"

"Well…can I feel your mane? I know that's kind of a crazy question, but I've always wanted to see how soft it is."

She was a little hesitant. "I guess so…"

Her pink mane was incredibly soft, far beyond anything I had felt before. I began to stroke her mane, and she seemed to like it. She closed her eyes and gave a little sigh of comfort. She yawned and said that she was going to head upstairs to her bed, but she ended up falling asleep right there in front of the fireplace. I swear that she was the cutest thing that ever existed. I continued stroking her mane for another half an hour until I accidently fell asleep leaning against her side. It was the first good sleep I got in days.

Author's Notes:

This was by far and away one of the most fun chapters to write. I wanted to convey a cute scene where Josh finally gets some sleep, but at the same time lets go of some of his distant behavior towards the ponies.


	3. Chapter 3: Day 2 and the Boutique

Chapter 3: Day 2, and an Evening at the Boutique

Normally I'm an early riser, but this time I slept in until 9:30 or 10:00, with my head still against Fluttershy's side. She quietly tapped me in the shoulder, and I awoke with a start.

*GASP* "What time is it?"

Fluttershy giggled. "It's around 9:50 in the morning. You must have fallen asleep after I did. When I woke up you were still resting against my side."

I felt kind of sheepish; I had never meant to fall asleep right there alongside Fluttershy, but at the same time I kind of enjoyed it. The sunlight was pouring through the window, casting a warm glow over the room.

For the first time since I had entered Equestria, I was feeling hungry. I walked into the kitchen and poked around. One of my favorite things to have in the morning was pancakes (assuming I ever got time to make them), but I didn't know if these ponies could have them. I theorized that they could, since pancakes are bread, which is made of starch. Starches are a form of condensed sugar, and the syrup would be sweet also, so I guessed that it would actually be good for them. The only problem was that she lacked syrup.

"Hey Fluttershy, do you mind if I try making breakfast? Considering that you let me stay at your place, it's the least I could do."

"I guess if you want to…"

Although she lacked syrup, she had sugar, so I made what my mom used to call a "pancake cake". It's just simply a pancake, with butter and brown sugar on top, and then another pancake with butter and

brown sugar on top of that, etc.

Fluttershy poked her head in the door of the kitchen area. "What are you doing…?"

"I'm attempting to make something that we have back at home sometimes. It's a kind of bread. Do you want to try it?"

She looked at the pancakes with a little doubt. "It looks funny for bread…"

I hadn't really thought of that yet. "…That's true, it's not the kind of bread you're thinking of."

After explaining the regular way of fixing them (trying to explain pouring a liquid onto bread sounded even weirder when I had to explain it), she went ahead and tried them.

A held my breath and expected the worst, but my wild guess paid off.

"These are amazing!" She exclaimed. "I haven't had anything like this before. You'll have to make it for everyone later tonight."

I chuckled at the idea. "How about I make them tomorrow morning? In general it's only made in the mornings, although there are some who have it later on in the day."

She seemed a little confused as to why it was more of a mornings-only kind of food.

"Why doesn't anypony make them in the evenings?"

"I honestly don't know. It's just has always been that way, and when I think of it that way, it seems a little silly."

She giggled at that, and I just smiled.

We met Applejack at around eleven, and I offered to stay and help carry apples from the orchards to a barn where they were being stored temporarily.

Applejack yelled over at me. "Josh? If you don't mind, we need to sort these by type. Just look at the labels above the storage areas; that should help tell you where to put them."

I walked inside the barn and looked around. It was larger on the inside than the outside suggested. I found the storage area, and that's when I noticed a problem. A large one, actually. Although we were speaking the same language, the writing was completely different.

I stared at the signs. "Hey Applejack…I just noticed something."

"What's that sugarcube?"

I stared intently at the signs. "I can't read this writing."

"You what? It seems like you're communicating just fine to me." She said with confidence.

"No seriously Applejack, I can't read this. We've been talking just fine, but this is completely different than our written language."

Applejack scratched her muzzle. "Well that's going to be a problem, isn't it?"

I sat down to think about it. "Cheerilee is the schoolteacher right? Do you think that she could give me a quick run down of this language? If I do that, I could learn some other things about Equestria on the side."

It was agreed that we would go see Cheerilee during her break time at lunch.

When we got there, the foals and fillies were already outside playing at recess. Applejack walked in with me Twilight happened to be there gathering some books that the kids had borrowed from the library.

I explained my dilemma to Twilight and Cheerilee, and Cheerilee agreed to give me some quick lessons.

Twilight had a sudden idea: "I know! I think I covered a spell that allows ponies to learn another language really fast…" She looked around and gathered some materials from around the room. "…and I'm pretty sure it would work on you too."

I was doubtful, but I let her try it on me anyways. She had me focus on the text on the page while she began to read the spell from a book. Her horn glowed and I felt a little light headed, but other than that I was fine.

"Anything?" Twilight asked.

I still couldn't read anything. "No…it's still the same to me."

Twilight was upset that it didn't work, and she sat down and began to go over the process again to herself. In the mean time, I looked over at one of the posters on the wall. Ever so slowly, I began to understand the symbols on the wall.

"I think it's working Twilight!" I looked at the cover of the book. "Equestrian Science" I said to myself.

Twilight was ecstatic that her spell worked. While I was reading, I found out a multitude of things that I never knew before. For instance, the gravity that affects Equestria is significantly less powerful than on Earth, which explained why I didn't break any ribs during my freefall. Cheerilee also loaned me a map of Equestria, which was an enormous help.

After thanking Cheerilee and Twilight for all the help, I headed back to Sweet Apple Acres once again to help out for the day.

When I got back, Applejack motioned me over to the barn. She yelled up to the barn loft: "Hey Big Mac, could you come here? There's a fella' here I'd like you to meet."

"Be there in just a minute." A low voice replied.

"Big Macintosh is my oldest brother, and I'm sure he'll appreciate the help."

I was quite surprised when Big Mac walked around the corner. He was tall, probably as tall as me, with huge muscles but a very gentle demeanor.

His raised an eyebrow when he saw me. "Who is this?"

Applejack smiled and looked at me. "This is Josh, and he's visiting for a while. He offered to help out around here for today, so if you need anything, just ask him."

Then I heard a couple small voices coming from around the side of the barn.

When they reached the corner of the barn, I realized it was the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

"Whoah, what is THAT?" Sweetie Bell yelled.

Apple Bloom looked worried. "I think it's attacking Applejack!"

"LET'S GET IT!" Scootaloo replied.

The trio of troublemakers ran at me, and I simply feinted one direction, and then reversed directions to sidestep them. They flew by and went tumbling past Big Mac and Applejack. They got up and looked a bit dizzy, and Applejack started cracking up. I think I even caught Big Mac chuckling a little bit, but maybe it was my imagination.

"Hehehe, THAT is Josh and he'll be helping us for a while." Applejack said. "He's friendly-like, so don't give him trouble you hear?"

I looked at the Crusaders with a smile "Nice to meet you."

Big Mac took me out to the apple orchards, where he showed me how they buck apples. It was a bit difficult for me to do it (considering I don't really have hind legs to do it with). In real life, trying to practice martial arts against a tree would result in broken bones, but these trees had quite a bit of give, so with a little practice I was able to side kick them with the same effect as bucking.

Big Mac made it look easy, and I felt slightly out of place, but at the end of the day he complimented me on my work, which made me feel a bit better.

Applejack walked out a while later. "Say, you want to have some dinner? We have some salad, fruit, and apple pie if you want some."

I set my baskets down. "That sounds good, I think I might take you up on that offer."

While the Apple family was inside, I chose to eat outside in the cool breeze. I thought my situation over in my head.

"_I need to talk with Princess Celestia, but how do I go about doing that? She IS the princess after all, and I'm sure her schedule is filled to the brim. My only real option is to ask Twilight. I guess I'll ask her later tonight."_

Applejack came walking out the front door later. "Josh? Joooosh…"

I was sitting right beside the front porch. "I'm right here."

"Oh there you are!" We're going to go over to Rarity's place for the evening; I figured you might want to know."

"Sounds good to me."

When we reached the boutique, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie were already there.

Pinkie Pie ran up to us. "Hey guys! Are you ready for a PARTY?"

"What's the occasion?"

"Silly! It's just for fun!"

Pinkie Pie had really outdone herself. The boutique was decorated in all sorts of colors, and there were all sorts of cupcakes imaginable provided by her parents. Twilight Sparkle, Spike, and Fluttershy arrived just as the party started.

"Yay! You guys are here!" Pinkie Pie turned to me. "We're playing pin the tail on the pony first, you should join us!"

"Thanks for the offer, but I think I'll just sit out and watch for the moment."

After the first couple games, Fluttershy told everyone about the pancakes I had made earlier that morning. At first I declined, but at everyone's request (more specifically Rarity's antics) I made them again.

Rainbow Dash was the first to try them at the party. "These are actually pretty good!"

"These are simply divine!" Rarity chimed in.

After chatting for an hour or two we said goodbye for the evening. While Rarity was taking a bath upstairs, I walked through her gallery of dresses she was working on in the boutique below. The dresses were crafted with the utmost care, and all of the stitches were perfectly aligned.

After a good fifteen minutes or so Rarity came back downstairs.

"Josh? What are you doing?"

"I was just looking at your collection of dresses; they remind me of the dresses that my grandmother used to make. Where I come from we don't use gems on clothes much; they're pretty much used exclusively on jewelry. By the way, where do you get all of these gems?"

"I just find them and dig them up. They form in the mountains underground, and they grow until someone finds them."

I shook my head. "That's amazing. Gems like this would be incredibly valuable where I come from only because they're incredibly hard to come by."

I looked over at Rarity. "Hey Rarity, do you think you could create some clothes for me? I'm not really going to be able to wear outfit all the time. I don't know how I'd repay you, but-"

"I'd love to!"

I was already under the impression that she wouldn't agree. "You-wait, what?"

"It would be a great challenge! I've never done any clothes for anything else other than ponies and Opal, so you'll have to help me out. I'm sure I can do it, but I'm going to need to use your clothes as a template."

"Um, how about I just lend you my sweatshirt and we'll work from there. I'm going to need a couple shirts so that I can change out of them. Then I can wash the others. We'll just do the pants later."

Rarity was up until 9:30-ish making a couple shirts for me, and it was a huge help.

"How do these look?" Rarity asked.

I was pretty impressed. "That's really good! I have to admit, you are a natural at this kind of stuff.

I thought to myself for a moment. "I do have one other question for you."

Rarity glanced over at me. "What is it? Is something wrong?"

"No, everything's fine. I was wondering what the most durable clothing material was. If possible, I'd like something a sweatshirt made of the same material."

"Hmm…I can create a magic infused cloth with dragon scale powder, but it will take some time to make."

"You don't have to do it tonight, you've done enough already. You should get some sleep."

"I suppose you're right, it is getting pretty late…"

Rarity walked over to the couch and sat down to relax. I sat down next to her and started stroking her mane like I did with Fluttershy. Her hair was cool and silky smooth.

She looked up at me. "What are you doing?"

"It's a massage; it's supposed to help you relax." By that point, I could tell that she was enjoying it.

She smiled and let out a sigh. "That feels pretty good actually. You can keep doing it as long as you don't mess up *yawn* my hair…" And a couple minutes later she was asleep. As I stroked her mane I messed up her hairdo, but I'm pretty sure she didn't care. I got up and walked over to a couch across the room and drifted off to sleep myself.

Author's Notes:

I think these chapters are getting longer…

Anyways, this is the second time I play around with the food idea, and I wasn't quite sure what food to introduce, so I went with pancakes, which is pretty much the best food on planet Earth. I'm not sure if it worked quite the way I wanted it to, but I guess I'll leave it as is.

There's a couple things happening here, I touch on the realm of side characters (in this case Cheerilee), and I also wanted to deal with the pesky language barrier. In the TV shows it's pretty clear that Spike writes the letters in a different language, so I wanted a fast way to learn to read/write in Equestrian.


	4. Chapter 4: Day 3 and Sugarcube Corner

Chapter 4: Day 3 and Sugarcube Corner

I've gotten quite a few subscriptions and a few PM's about this; since there's enough interest I guess I'll keep writing. Thanks for the support/feedback.

I woke up at my normal time, right around 6:00. The sun hadn't even started to rise, so I decided to start cleaning the front area of the Boutique for Rarity. It was littered with cloth fragments, tiny gems on the tables, and needles resting on other tables. It took a good half hour or so, but I managed to gather all of the gems onto one table and sort them by type. As for the needles, I laid them all out in a row next to the gems.

I glanced over at Rarity; she looked awfully cold on the couch, so I found a warm blanket from upstairs and put it over her.

When I was done cleaning, I was slightly bored and didn't quite know what to do, so I took a walk around the property just to see what was there. I returned at about 9:00, and it was 9:15 by the time Rarity was up (although she looked like she could use another couple hours of sleep). She walked through the door, hair still in a slight mess from yesterday night.

"Oh? You're up already?"

I chuckled at her comment. "I'm an early riser. On a normal day I'm up before the sunrise even begins."

"Ugh, I couldn't do that. I need my beauty sleep so I can be ready for the day."

"If you sleep in too long you won't have any day left to be ready for!"

Rarity insisted that she make breakfast, even though I told her I could do it instead. Sweetie Bell came in a little later and offered to help, but Rarity would have none of it. (She explained later that Sweetie Bell had a tendency to burn everything, including juice.) She made toast, fried eggs, and orange juice, which was nice change after the straight sugar the other ponies had been practically injecting into my system.

I really had no idea what I would be doing the whole day, but Rarity still needed to create some pants for me, so I decided to stay at the Boutique for the morning.

"Rarity, do you have a bathtub or shower here?"

"Of course, there's one upstairs if you want to use it. The towels are underneath the sink and the shampoo is on a shelf next to the shower."

"I'll leave my pants outside the door while I'm in the shower so you can use them as a template."

"Oh that's right, I had almost forgotten about that; I'll get started on it."

The shower was larger than the ones I had seen back on Earth, but that was probably due to a pony's length. It looked really nice; there were glass accents on the counter tops and it was well lit. I really had no idea what shampoo to use, so I decided to go with one that was labeled "Strawberry Bliss".

I felt a little funny having to wear a towel and a shirt around the boutique, but until I got my pants back it would have to do. The pants that Rarity designed were all different colors; one was an ocean blue, another was black, and another was a really light shade of grey (almost white) which looked pretty good. She also went ahead and made a warmer sweatshirt for freezing temperatures, which I was grateful for.

Rarity looked at me. "Anything else you need? I have the time if something else is required."

I thought out loud "Well…underwear and socks would be nice..."

"I know what socks are, but what's an underwear?"

I had forgotten about that. "It's not AN underwear, it's just underwear. How do I describe it...simply put, its pants but without the legs. They're incredibly short, and made of a soft, lightweight material."

Do you have any that I could use as a template?

"Not really...sorry."

"What is it for?"

"It's just a second layer of protection from the elements. That's about as good of an explanation as I can give you."

After it was all said and done, Rarity had designed three of everything: three shirts, three pairs of pants, etc.

"Rarity, I have no idea how I can repay you."

She gave me a quick smile. "Don't mention it."

She had her first customer of the day enter her shop at 11:00, so I just stepped back and watched Rarity work her magic. When she started designing a dress, she pulled EVERYTHING off of the shelves. (Which ruined my cleaning job from earlier, but I guess that's okay.) In a literal whirlwind of cloth, gems, and ribbon, she was imagining designs and placing like fabrics together with stunning results.

When lunchtime came around, we left for Sugarcube Corner, where we met up with Pinkie Pie for lunch. There I met Mr. and Mrs. Cake, and I introduced myself to them. (I already knew about them from the TV shows, but I didn't mention it.)

I offered to help them with whatever they needed, as long as it wasn't baking. It had never really been my strong point; all I knew about cooking was either under the label of "Pancakes", "Toast", or "Lunchables". They told me that I could join Pinkie Pie in delivering the cupcakes to different people, so I took the task of carrying the cupcakes, while Pinkie Pie led the way.

Pinkie Pie was either talking or singing constantly, which I was used to.

"So Pinkie, how many cupcakes do you guys make in a day?"

"At least a hundred, sometimes we have to make two hundred if there's enough hungry ponies around."

"That's crazy. Don't you get tired of them?"

She put on a huge smile. "Nope! They're my most favoritest food ever!"

Out of all the ponies that we visited, there were two that were notable. The first one was actually the fifth house on the customer list. I was pretty astounded when the door opened.

"Hello? Oh hey there Pinkie!"

I couldn't help but stare. "You're Vinyl Scratch!"

She just smiled. "Yes, yes I am."

"It's nice to meet you, I've heard a lot of good things about your music."

Vinyl looked a little embarrassed. "Thanks…"

Pinkie Pie stared at me. "How do you know Vinyl?"

"I'm fairly confident that some of Vinyl's music is in my dimension as well, and she's well known as a pony."

Vinyl was a little confused as to what was going on. "Wait, people in a different dimension know me? That is so COOL."

We couldn't really stay and chat because we had other places to go, but it was still fun to see Vinyl. The second pony that stood out to me was actually back at the bakery. When we arrived, I saw Lyra (also known as Heartstrings) off to the side, having a conversation with Mrs. Cake. I never got a chance to talk with her, but it was nice to see some of the background characters around.

Walking the delivery route took up most of the day, and it was late in the evening by the time we finally got back.

Incredibly, Pinkie Pie didn't lose any energy. "Were done! Now we can go make CUPCAKES!"

I simply smiled shook my head. "I don't know how you do it Pinkie Pie."

"Do what?"

"How you keep all that energy! I'm already wiped out from walking all over Ponyville today. While I'm over here trying to relax a little, you look like you have enough energy to go run a marathon."

Mr. and Mrs. Cake made dinner that evening, and they graciously allowed me to stay in a guest bedroom downstairs for the night. The evening was actually pretty uneventful.

I was barely asleep when Pinkie Pie walked in the room.

"Hey Josh…"

"What…?"

"I can't get to sleep, and, well, Rarity told me that you had a great way to help ponies fall asleep…so I was kind of wondering if you would…"

I knew where it was going. "Yeah, I'll see if it helps you."

With a sigh I crawled out of bed and went with Pinkie Pie. She curled up in her bed and I sat on the edge of the bed, petting her until she fell asleep. It was a little harder to do with her crazy hair; I had to avoid getting knots in her hair. It took a good half hour before she actually dropped off to sleep, and afterwards I went back downstairs to the guest room where I fell asleep also.

Author's Notes:

I wanted to address the issue of clothing more, but it became waaaaay too long and pretty boring, so I cut most of it out. (This chapter is also comparatively short.) I also wanted to touch on background characters, but I didn't want to begin inserting my own ideas of them into the text, so I kept the contact to a minimum. I might delve into more of a talk with them later, but I'm not really sure right now.


	5. Chapter 5: A Day with the Crusaders

Chapter 5: A Day with the Crusaders

Once again, I was up early. It had become a habit that I developed back in middle school. There were cartoons that I absolutely LOVED and that I HAD to watch every morning, but the rule was that I had to finish my chores before any free time was allowed. That meant that I had to have my whole morning chore list done by 6:30, which meant that I needed at least a half an hour of time to get everything done.

Pinkie Pie, as to be expected, was at full energy the moment she woke up. She made breakfast for all of us, which was pretty neat.

Applejack walked through the door of the shop a little before 9:00, and she had the infamous Cutie Mark Crusaders in tow.

I could tell that Apple Bloom was getting on her nerves. "Applejack? Can you pleeeeaaaase buy us some cupcakes?"

"I said NO! If I say no the first time, it means no!" She noticed me watching the whole fiasco from the table in the corner. "Oh hey there Josh! Enjoying Ponyville?"

"It's been quite the experience. I've met a zillion ponies that I never even thought existed. That's not something you get to do every day."

Applejack looked at me with a pleading face. "Can I ask you for a big favor?"

"Fire away."

"Ya' see, we're going to be constructing a new fence around Sweet Apple Acres, but with all of the nails and construction ponies there I don't want the young'uns around to get hurt. Could you take them for the day so I can go back and help?"

I smiled and said "That sounds easy enough to me, I'll take care of them for the day." Little did I know the gravity of the request I had just taken on.

Applejack looked relieved. "Now you three listen to what Joshua says, alright? Don't you be giving him any trouble now. ESPECIALLY you Apple Bloom."

Apple Bloom rolled her eyes. "I know, I know…"

Applejack looked back at me. "Thanks Josh, I owe you one."

I ended up helping them with some homework they had for a couple hours, and the moment they finished, it was a mad dash for the door.

"Hold it. Where are you guys running off to now?"

"We're going to our clubhouse! You want to come?" Scootaloo replied.

I joined them as they went to their "secret" clubhouse. They had done a surprising amount of work on it; paint had been applied, some boards had been fixed, and a new ladder was in place.

"We did all the work ourselves!" Applebloom beamed.

"And hardly anyone knows that it's here, so you can't tell anyone, alright?" Sweetie Bell chimed in.

"Alright, I promise not to tell anyone."

They began to ascend the ladder one by one, but when I got there, I was promptly stopped.

"Waaaaaiiiit a second." Scootaloo said. "He's not part of our club. Should we really let him in?"

I rolled my eyes. I could tell this was going to take a while.

Applebloom pondered the thought for a while. "I'm not sure. I think we should make him go through the official Cutie Mark Crusader course before he can come up here."

I looked at Applebloom. "What exactly does this Crusader course involve?"

Sweetie Bell was the first to answer. "It's a process we created to test new members. You have to go to the Everfree forest and-"

"Wait a minute." _The Everfree forest? I've only heard stories about that place, but I've never actually been there. If it's as dangerous as the ponies say…_

"Are you sure that's a safe idea? The Everfree forest isn't exactly the safest place in the world…"

"It's totally fine." Scootaloo replied. "We built an obstacle course inside. If you can make it through, then you'll be an official Cutie Mark Crusader."

I shouldn't have agreed. And I knew it. But I did. With shouts of joy they bolted off into the forest.

"You guys! Wait up!"

But it was too late. They were already gone.

I managed to follow their sounds for quite a ways, making sure I left a trail to get back. After a while I came to a chasm with a rope bridge across it. I inched my way across, trying desperately not to lose my balance. I almost fell off once, and I was glad to be back on solid ground.

A while later I caught up to the trio.

"Thank goodness I finally found you…what are you doing? And where are you going?"

They all looked at the ground simultaneously. Sweetie Bell managed to tell the truth. "We actually can't find our obstacle course…and we're *sniff* lost…"

Sweetie Bell began to sob, and Applebloom soon joined her.

I sighed. "Well, as long as we're here, we might as well look around. We'll make it an adventure, okay?"

That seemed to calm them down a bit, and they stuck right next to my side for the remainder of the journey. We were on a plateau that rose up off of the ground by a couple hundred feet. By the looks of it, no one had been there in ages.

Scootaloo ran over to a round column. "Look at this! It's got markings on it…"

I recalled seeing something like it in the TV shows, but I couldn't place it. Thirty or so feet ahead, we came to the entrance of a stone building. Finally it clicked.

"I know what this place is..." I thought it over for a while. "This is where Twilight Sparkle and the others defeated Nightmare Moon."

The trio walked around inside the ruins in awe. I sat down and told them the story in full detail, and they hung on every word. Each one wanted to know what their sister (in Scootaloo's case, Rainbow Dash, even though she wasn't her sister) did in stopping Nightmare Moon. I described the Elements of Harmony, and the scene that unfolded after they defeated Nightmare Moon.

I also stressed that Luna was completely different than Nightmare Moon, and that she had a full change of heart. I'm not sure if they believed me, but I had to back Luna's reputation up.

By the time I had finished the story it was beginning to get dark out, so we began our hunt for home. We wandered in different directions for around an hour or two until I came across the trail that I had left before.

"I think I found my trail that I left behind. We should be able to follow this home."

There were shouts of joy from the trio, who were at this point tired of being lost in the woods. And then I heard it.

It was distant and low. I froze in place. "Girls, don't move."

"What is it-" I cut Applebloom off mid sentence.

"Don't talk."

The low beat was getting closer. I scanned the landscape, and then saw movement a couple hundred feet off to our right.

I turned toward the Crusaders, who were standing a good twenty or thirty feet away from me. "Get out of here and get back home as fast as you can. Follow the trail I made."

"What are you doing?" Scootaloo asked.

I turned to look at them. "I'm going to buy you some time."

"Buy us time from wh-"

I turned my attention back to the movement coming at us just in time. I bolted away from the girls as a bright jet of flame screamed across the landscape, incinerating everything it touched. A dragon was following us.

The Crusaders needed no more explanation. They ran as fast as they could back for Ponyville. In the mean time, I had to distract the dragon before it noticed them. I just kept on running between cover, trying to evade the potentially deadly bursts of fire.

"_How in the world do I defeat a dragon? I've never seen one, let alone fight one." _By this time the dragon was catching up to me. What it lacked in agility it made up for in size. It might have been heavy, but its legs were long enough to outpace me. And even if I could outrun it, it had wings. A sudden thought came to my head. _"I don't have to __win__, I just have to __not lose__." _With that I changed tactics.

I figured that the Crusaders were far enough away that I could focus on escaping. Instead of attracting a ton of attention, I attempted to divert the attention elsewhere. I dodged between rocks until I was back to the chasm. I was in hiding long enough that the massive beast grew restless and began to shoot flames at random targets. I threw a rock off the edge of a cliff, but away from the dragon's view. When the rock connected with the opposite wall of the chasm, it made a distinctly loud "CRACK" that echoed through the canyon.

The moment dragon heard it, he launched into the evening air and down into the canyon after the noise. The rock continued falling, which helped to keep it entertained. In the mean time, I was running as fast as I could back to the trail. By the time it realized that there was no one in the canyon, I was a couple hundred feet away, far enough in the cover of the trees that he couldn't see me. After a mile or so, I turned around and looked back. The dragon was circling the bridge, looking for anybody else that was disturbing his territory. I continued run back to Ponyville.

Applejack and Rarity were at the edge of the woods looking for me, and Rainbow Dash was scanning from the sky when I burst through the trees. I was thoroughly exhausted and slightly singed, but all in all I was fine. I sat down on the grass and took a moment to catch my breath.

Rainbow Dash was the first to notice me. "Joshua! We were looking all over for you! Sweetie Bell and the others told us all about what happened, are you all right?"

I was breathing pretty heavily still. "I've had worse happen to me." I said. "But I've never had a dragon chase me before; that was a first."

Applejack let me ride on her until we got back to Sweet Apple Acres.

"Josh!" the trio ran up and practically tackled me right off of Applejack. It was a flood of questions, one right after another. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine, but my shirt was burned a little." I turned to Rarity. "Sorry about that."

Rarity smiled. "No problem, I can always make more."

Applejack looked at the Cutie Mark Crusaders, who's heads were hanging pretty low. "You need to apologize to Joshua for getting him into such a dangerous situation!"

"We're sorry…"

I laughed. "Are you kidding? I had a great time! I'd do that again someday!"

They're heads perked up. "You would?"

"Of course!"

We all ate dinner at the farm, which was prepared well before hand by Granny Smith. The Crusaders had plans for a sleepover, but they were too tired to stay up any longer. I was sitting in the hay loft with Applejack when I got up to leave.

"Where are you going?" Applejack asked.

"I promised the trio that I'd read them a story before they headed to bed."

I walked inside the clubhouse where they were all resting. I read them a story that they had chosen from the library, aptly named "The Dragon's Tail" (supposedly a play on the word _tale_).

When I was almost out the door, Applebloom spoke up. "Josh? We just wanted to let you know that you're part of the club now."

"Thanks you guys." With that I headed back up to the hay loft, where I was going to sleep for the evening. It was surprisingly warm, and Applejack was waiting for me.

"Josh…?"

"Yes?"

Applejack walked over to the hay pile where I was sitting. "…Thanks for saving my sis. That means a lot to me. I was worried sick when we couldn't find you ponies, and then when they told us that you had saved them from a dragon, I was afraid that something had happened to you."

"Don't mention it. You probably had a more stressful time waiting here than I had out there." I started straightening her now wild hair to try and help her calm down.

She sat down next to me and finally relaxed her muscles. "Say…that feels pretty good." I just kept straightening her hair until she settled down. It was only a matter of minutes until she fell asleep. The loft was a little warm for me, so I went down to the lower section of the barn and found a place to doze off.

Author's Notes:

Okay, this chapter took a lot longer than I expected, but I think it was well worth it. I finally have a chapter where Josh has an adventure with ponies outside the main six.

Quite honestly, I really wasn't looking forward to doing a chapter with the Crusaders, but it turned out to be pretty enjoyable.

And for those of you who were looking for a _little_ bit more out of the dragon fight, he might be making a comeback ;)


	6. Chapter 6: Head in the Clouds

I have to thank all of you who have stuck with me on this; I've gotten a surprising amount of subscriptions to this story, and that's always fun to see. I think I'm going to aim for at least ten chapters, but we'll see how it goes.

Chapter 6: Head in the Clouds

I woke up to a tremendous roar and a burst of light through the barn window.

"What is it now…?"

I walked outside the barn to see a wave of colors flying across the sky.

Rainbow Dash floated down next to me. "What do you think? It's my super awesome one of a kind Sonic Rainboom!"

"It's amazing...but do you mind practicing sometime after we're already up? Some of us are trying to get some sleep here."

Applejack sleepily walked down from the loft. "I second that notion."

Dashy was noticeably embarrassed. "Hehehe. Oops. Sorry about that."

"Its guess it's OK, I needed to get up anyways."

Applejack didn't agree. "Well ah' sure could have used another forty winks..."

Rainbow Dash floated up into the air. "Well guys, today is my shift on the weather patrol, so I should probably get going."

"Hey Dash." I began.

She turned around. "What?"

"Don't you work in sort of cloud city? Do you think I could join you for the day?"

"You mean Cloudsdale? I guess so…"

"Although…I would need Twilight to activate a spell that would allow me to stand on clouds."

Rainbow Dash smiled. "Yeah…I think that would work! I'll meet you after lunch and I'll pick you up, but right now I have to go meet up with the team. We're supposed to clear these morning clouds before 9:00."

"That sounds good to me."

And with that she bolted off into the sky.

Applejack walked up next to me. "Well, if you're about done workin' out your plans for the day, I need to go to Whitetail Wood to begin the sap harvesting. You can join us if you want."

I figured that I didn't have anything better to do, so I agreed. "Under one condition."

Applejack turned her head. "And what would that be?"

"You have to promise me that we don't meet up with any dragons; I've had enough dragon encounters for a while."

Applejack smiled. "Whitetail Wood is completely under pony control. It's a perfectly safe place for anypony to be."

After a quick breakfast we were on our way. Whitetail Wood wasn't too terribly far away, so we walked there instead of taking a carriage.

It was a pretty place to be, the leaves were all sorts of autumn colors: reds, yellows, and other orange colors made the forest look like it was on fire.

"So what exactly are we doing here?"

"These here trees produce sap in the fall, and we drain the excess into buckets so we can use it back on the farm." Applejack explained.

The trip was fairly uneventful, but along the way we did see groups of ponies preparing for some sort of event.

"What are they doing?"

Applejack turned to look at what I was talking about. "Oh them? They're setting up for the Running of the Leaves. It's a big ol' race that's held annually to help blow all of them leaves off of the trees."

Other than that, not much else happened. The trip took us a good three hours or so. On my way back to Ponyville I decided to see Twilight and ask her about the cloud spell.

"I'm going to stay here until Twilight gets back, I'll see you guys later."

Big Mac and Applejack waved goodbye and left for Sweet Apple Acres. In the mean time, I walked into the library and had a good look around. It was the first time I actually had some spare time to look around. It was nicely decorated; it was neatly dusted, fresh flowers were on the table, and the wood work was very ornate. The only issue was that there were books scattered everywhere; most of the ones on the floor were spell books, which I assumed Twilight had been reading.

I picked one up and looked at it, but it was far beyond what I could comprehend. As far as I could tell, learning magic was a bit like math; to understand the more advanced spells, you needed to have a solid grasp of the lower level spells.

I was still browsing through the selections of books along the walls when Twilight walked through the door with Spike. "Oh hey there Josh! What are you doing here?"

"Well, I was wondering if you could do me a favor."

"What is it?"

"You know the time when you went to cheer Rainbow Dash on in Cloudsdale? I was actually hoping to visit Cloudsdale today, but I can't walk on clouds, so I was wondering if you could perform the spell that you used on everyone else to get them to stand on clouds."

She thought about it for a moment. "I guess so…but what are you going to Cloudsdale for?"

"I'm just going to see what its like. I've never been there before, but I've heard of it, and it sounds like fun!"

Twilight began sorting through some books. "No…nope…not this one…Aha! Here it is."

She began to focus, and her horn gave off a flash of light. "There you go!" She trotted off to go read another book.

"Wait, that's it?"

"That's all there is too it!"

"That was fast, are you sure that it worked?"

She turned around to face me. "Look, I've done this before. I know it worked. I DID study under Princess Celestia after all…"

She had a point, so I decided to let it go. Twilight offered me lunch, but seeing as I would be hundreds of feet in the air, I figured it would be best if I just held off on foods for a while.

Eventually, Rainbow Dash showed up with a cloud in tow. "You ready for this?"

"Yep! Twilight used a spell on me that allows me to walk on clouds. Let's just hope it works on humans as well as ponies."

I hopped onto the cloud, expecting to fall right through. When I landed I sank in a ways, but I didn't fall. It was incredibly soft.

"I can see why you like them so much, these are actually pretty comfortable!"

"They sure are! Here goes nothing. Hold on tight!"

I looked back at Rainbow Dash. "Wait, how fast we-"

With a sudden lurch forward we were off into the sky. I could see over all of Ponyville, and it was quite a sight. After we got a couple hundred feet off the ground, I was beginning to have second thoughts.

"Slow down a bit! You're making me nervous!"

Rainbow Dash had a gleam in her eye. "Just wait until we actually go _fast._"

"You're kidding, right?"

Rainbow Dash smiled at me. "Nope."

We began to pick up even more speed. Cloudsdale was fairly close, and it was getting larger by the second. By the time we were five hundred feet or so in the air, Dash kicked it into high gear and she accelerated at a breakneck pace. I held on as hard as I could as the wind whipped past us.

"Raaaaiiiiiinbow! Hold on a moment!"

She came to a sudden stop, and I flew right off of the cloud. "WAAAIIIIIT!"

Rainbow Dash flew down and picked me up before I could fall very far. She lifted me back onto the cloud. She was giggling to herself the whole way there.

It only took us a minute or two to reach Cloudsdale, and by that time I was a nervous wreck. Rainbow Dash could only smile and laugh.

"Hehehe, you're not used to that kind of stuff, are you?"

I carefully stepped off of the cloud onto the larger body of clouds. "N-no, I'm really not…"

It might not have been dry ground, but I was happy to get off of the high speed disaster.

"I won't go that fast on the way back, alright?"

"That would be great, now I'm going to catch my breath…" I plopped myself down on Cloudsdale's surface.

When I was finally able to focus, I took a moment to look around. Cloudsdale was a large city, with streams of water and rainbows flowing down to the ground. I walked over to the edge of the cloud. The buildings weren't visible; it was just a big blur.

"Whoah…that's cool. We don't have anything like this back at home…"

Rainbow Dash looked back at me. "You don't? Then where do rainbows and snowflakes come from? And most importantly, where do clouds come from?"

"We have a…different way of getting clouds and snow. The only thing is that we can't control it."

"The more you talk about your home, the crazier of a place it seems! We control all of the weather, all of the time. There aren't very many instances when we have an unexpected turn of the weather."

I laughed at that. "You don't know half of the crazy stuff that happens back where I come from. By the way, where are we going first?"

Rainbow Dash thought it over. "The closest facility is where we make the clouds, so I guess I can show you that first." She led me through a series of arches that resembled human Greek architecture.

When we got there, there was a central room with a catwalk that encompassed the production area. "This is where we make our clouds. Usually we can just reuse old ones, but if we need to make new ones, this is where they come from."

She pointed at one corner of the room. "Over there we have water that runs constantly. We use glass prisms to magnify the sunlight, and that in turn evaporates the water. We collect the gasses in giant chambers, and when we need a new cloud, we compress the gasses into a cloud, and viola! A new cloud is born."

I watched the workers focus a giant lens at the water source. After a minute or two, the water began to boil, and the water vapor flowed into a series of tubes down into a storage tank.

Next she took me over to a section of the city where snowflakes were designed. It was cold in the room, with the same water system flowing around the side.

"This is where we create the snowflakes for the wintertime. We handcraft every one of them, and we store them in giant containers at freezing temperature until we need to use them."

There were some example snowflakes hanging by threads attached to the ceiling, and there was a table of snowflakes for guests to look at. Most of them were tiny, like the ones back at home, but they also made larger ones, almost the size of my hand.

A sudden shadow passed over us. Rainbow Dash looked up into the sky. "Why is there a cloud around today? *Sigh* That should have been taken care of by my weather patrol team. I need to go take care of this, I'll be right back."

While Rainbow Dash was away taking care of the cloud problem, I watched the pegasi design the snowflakes under a magnifying glass. It was a delicate process of creating fine needles of ice, arranging them in a pattern, and then adding droplets of water to the places where they needed to be joined, and solidifying the joints.

Rainbow Dash soon returned. "Alright, that should be the last of the clouds. Do you want to go see the rainbow production?"

"That's what I've been looking forward to! I want to see this for myself."

We kept on walking until we reached the edge of the city. The whole time I was there I was getting some pretty funny looks from some of the workers, but I had to remind myself that they had never seen a human before.

Finally we reached a massive outdoor terrace, where liquid rainbows were flowing from one container to another. The whole production area had to be at least the size of a football field.

"This is incredible! I've never seen anything like it!"

"Yeah, it's pretty awesome. Just be careful about getting rainbows on your clothes, it takes a bit of work to get them off."

"I'll remember that."

I walked in between the pools of color. They started a couple stories above us, each as individual colors of the rainbow. Through a series of channels and pools, they gradually flowed down and mixed together to form a swirling liquid of amazing hues.

I noticed some of the pegasi holding giant paddles and stirring the liquid. "What are they doing with those?"

"If we don't mix the pools of colors, then one color tends group together, making a giant color splotch where there shouldn't be. Then the final rainbow is practically all one color, and that doesn't look as good."

"I guess that makes sense." I looked down at the flow of colors. "Where does all of this stuff go?"

"Rainbows are used for a ton of different things; usually they're used in magic spells, but sometimes we put them in clouds to give the rain a more cheery appearance, and on some occasions people use it to make their food look more colorful. Anything we don't use or store immediately has to be dumped out, which is why there are rainbows constantly falling from Cloudsdale."

I pulled out two glass vials that Twilight let me borrow. "Do you mind if I take a little of the rainbow with me?"

"I don't see why not…"

I squatted down and filled each one, carefully examining the wondrous concoction. The liquid itself gave off a beautiful glow that constantly changed colors. I put the vials in my sweatshirt pocket for later.

By the time I had taken the full tour of Cloudsdale, the sun had disappeared from behind the hills, and the stars were beginning to show themselves.

Rainbow Dash walked up beside me. "Do you want to hang at my place for the evening? I've got extra room if you want to stay."

"That would be awesome, thanks Dash."

I hopped back on a cloud and we started flying towards Rainbow Dash's house. True to her word, she didn't go quite as fast as when we first departed for Cloudsdale, but it was still pretty rapid. When the house came into view, I was astonished at its size. The house was huge, especially considering that she was the only occupant. It was all white and sky blue, with some liquid rainbows flowing from the sides. The house itself had the same architecture that I saw in Cloudsdale.

When we finally got inside it was well past 8:00. She looked slightly fatigued when she walked through the door. "I've never had to push someone around that much; and you're not exactly the lightest thing ever."

She had lots of furniture, although most of it was made of clouds, which was pretty awesome.

"Make yourself at home." Rainbow Dash said. "You can grab some fruit off of the table, there's an extra bedroom up on the second floor whenever you want to head to bed, and the third floor has a balcony where you can look out over all of Ponyville. I for one am going to pull up a cloud and get some sleep." She promptly fluffed up a cloud and plopped down in it.

I walked over and began to smoothe out her hair. She closed her eyes. "That feels pretty good. Where did you learn to do that?"

"I worked a little bit with ponies back at home. They always seemed to enjoy it, so I guessed that you would."

"You guessed right…"She yawned and started to say something after that, but she drifted off to sleep before she finished.

Afterwards I went upstairs, found a good cloud, and fell asleep myself.

Author's Notes:

Not quite as action packed as the last chapter, but I wanted to do something with Cloudsdale. I also wanted to have a calmer chapter without any form of real stress. I guess I'm getting a little lazy and trying to get to the 8th chapter…


	7. Chapter 7: Back to Ponyville

Chapter 7: Back to Ponyville

Rainbow Dash prodded me awake the next morning.

"Hey Josh! Jooooosh…Wake up!"

"Mmph…"

Dash shook her head. "You really took a liking to these clouds didn't you?"

I opened my eyes and looked up at the figure standing over me. "What time is it?"

"It's about 9:20 in the morning, and I have places I need to be. But I couldn't just leave you up here; then you'd have no way to get back down to the ground."

She had a point. I didn't really want to be forced into falling down to Equestria again, so I got up out of the fluffy white bed and walked out to the patio. The sky was covered in a shadowy layer of grey rain clouds.

"I suggest staying indoors for today; we're scheduled to have some rain this morning, and it will taper off as the day goes on."

"That's good advice, I'll be sure to remember that."

I hopped onto a cloud and Rainbow Dash began to fly me back down to Ponyville. "By the way, we're having a girl's night at Rarity's place this evening, with a full spa treatment beforehand. I figured that you might want to know. By the way, where do you want to be dropped off?"

"I guess I'll go to the library since it's going to rain all day." I turned back and smiled at her. "Thanks for everything Dash."

"No problem! I don't get very many visitors at my place, namely because they can't walk on my cloud floors. It was fun to have some company!"

As we reached the library, a steady rain began to fall.

"Right on schedule…" Rainbow Dash said.

After saying goodbye, I walked into the library. It was dry, which couldn't exactly be said for my clothes. I'd have to air dry for now, since all of my clothes were over at Rarity's place.

Twilight was up in the loft reading when she noticed me. "Oh hi there Josh! Did you have fun in Cloudsdale?"

"Yes I did, and it was quite the adventure."

"You still owe me an explanation." Twilight began.

"What?"

She smiled at me. "You promised me that you would explain how the stars moved without magic back in your home dimension. I haven't gotten my explanation yet."

"That's true, I did say that, didn't I? Where do I begin..."

I sat down to think for a while. "It's not that the stars move so much as the planet moves. The stars very well may move, but it's the rotation of our planet that allows us to see all of the stars. This planet seems to be at the center of this universe, so everything circles around it. Where I come from, our planet circles around the center of the universe."

Twilight began to write notes again. "Now it's making more sense…so what causes the rotation and the movement of the stars?"

"Before I begin, I have to tell you that I can't introduce new concepts into this dimension. Doing so could potentially destroy the known physics of Equestria. I'm going to have talk in some figurative speech, and you're going to have to use some imagination."

Twilight looked a bit confused, but she seemed to grasp the concept. "Alright…"

"How could I explain this without introducing a new concept…I guess the thing that moves our universe is our equivalent to a spell that pulls objects towards something else. We call this spell "gravity", but we're not entirely sure how it works. The basic idea is that while the planet is flying fast enough that it wants to keep going off into space, the "gravity" spell pulls hard enough that it stays bound to a certain area. Since the planet wants to keep moving, but can't leave the area, it just goes around in circles infinitely."

"This also is what causes our weather and winds. Here, all of the wind and rain is determined ahead of time. Back at home, it's completely random and chaotic."

I looked at the window and out to the rain that was falling. "Although it's all random, there are certain places that get more rain than others. In the city where I live, we get lots of rain year round, but there are other areas that hardly get any rain at all. Again, it's all random."

"Aha! I think I get it now…thanks for the explanation." She continued to write down some notes while I took a break from my explanation.

Spike woke up from a mid-morning nap. "*Yawn* Oh hey there Josh. I never even heard you come in."

He hopped out of his bed and walked over to the room where Twilight and I were. "Hey Josh, what are the dragons like where you come from?"

"Spike, there aren't any dragons where I come from. So I couldn't really answer that for you. You were the first dragon I ever met."

"Really? That's cool…Hey, I'm going to go toast some muffins, you guys want some?"

Twilight finally set down her books. "Sure, I could use a break from all this reading."

"Muffins? That sounds pretty good right about now."

Spike walked into the kitchen and started to rummage through the cupboards. I turned my attention back to Twilight. 

"Hey Twilight, I have a question for you. I'm not from around here, so I don't really know how this would work."

She looked up at me. "What is it?"

"Say a pony wanted to get a session with Princess Celestia…How would I go about doing that?"

"You want to see Princess Celestia? What for?"

"Well, she's the most powerful magic user in all of Equestria right? I think she's probably my best bet at finding a way home."

"I see what you're saying…but it's not a simple task to see the princess. Between ruling Equestria and moving the sun and stars around, she doesn't have much free time. I'll have Spike write a letter and we'll send it off to her, and see if she gets back to us."

Spike came back with a plate of warm muffins. They were a lot like cornbread, but a little sweeter than what I was used to having.

"Spike, I need you to get a quill and paper." Twilight began.

"What for?"

"I need to send a letter to Princess Celestia."

"Twilight? Last I checked, the next time you're supposed to send a friendship report is a couple days from now."

"It's not going to be a friendship report; I'm going to see if Joshua can visit her for a while."

Spike, under the direction of Twilight, wrote a couple sentences to the princess, keeping it short and to the point.

_Dear Princess Celestia,_

_I have with me a visitor from_

_a different world who is interested_

_in visiting you. He is hoping that_

_you could provide guidance for_

_his journey back._

_Your Faithful Student,_

_Twilight Sparkle_

In a cloud of green flames Spike launched the letter into the air. It evaporated into smoke and flew out the window.

"We'll see what she says." Twilight said.

"How long does it take for her to respond?"

Spike jumped in the conversation: "Sometimes it's almost instantaneous, other times it takes a day or two for her to get back to us."

"I suppose I should begin preparations if I'm going to leave. I'm going to need to head over to Rarity's boutique to gather my things."

"We're due for a spa treatment in half an hour or so, why don't you just join us? We're going to head over to Rarity's place right afterwards."

"I don't know…I've never really been one for hot tubs and such."

After Twilights poking and prodding, I agreed to join them at the spa. We met up with the others at around 4:15-ish.

The staff was naturally curious as to what I was doing there, but Twilight and the others backed up my story when I told it to them. Once again, I had to deal with some of the generic "What-are-you-where-are-you-from" questions, but I had rehearsed it so many times that it came naturally.

At first I declined to get in the spa, especially since I was the only guy in the room. After a while though Fluttershy finally convinced me that I should get in.

"You've had a long week, I think it would be good for you." She said.

I couldn't really argue with Fluttershy's logic, it had been quite the week. I eventually settled down in an adjacent pool. I had to draw the line at the cucumbers and the warm towels on my head; that just wasn't happening.

Twilight mentioned my plan to the rest of the group, and they were pretty exited.

"If you do see the princess, please tell her hi for us!" Fluttershy said.

"And make sure that you kneel when you see her dear." Rarity added. "It's common courtesy around royalty."

"We had similar rules at one point in time." I thought back. "But they've since been lost to time."

A sudden thought came to my head. "Twilight, the regular mode of transportation to Canterlot is by a flying carriage right?"

"Yes…"

I turned my attention to Rainbow Dash. "Dash, what's the weather supposed to be like tomorrow?"

She thought it over. "The morning is supposed to be cold and clear, but it's supposed to snow later on in the day."

"And I'm assuming that if the snow starts, the carriage will have to be grounded until better weather comes, is that correct?"

Applejack was fast to catch on. "I see what you're sayin…If you don't get started before the early mornin', you might not be able to make it there before the snow falls."

"My thoughts exactly. I'm going to need to leave pretty early in the morning."

We all walked back together to Rarity's place, where Pinkie Pie had once again put on a huge party. While the others were eating, I was getting my things ready. I had a small backpack that Rarity had made in her free time, in which I folded my clothes and my spare sweater. I had some other odds and ends that I had picked up over the course of the week: a couple bits (their form of money, which Big Mac had given me for helping out at the farm), some small nails, and some gems I had found lying in the Everfree forest.

One of them in particular had struck my eye; it was tall and perfectly clear, and I had spent some time at Sweet Apple Acres drilling a hole in the center. I reached into my sweatshirt pocket and found one of the vials of liquid rainbow, which I poured inside the hole. The light cast from the liquid refracted off of the edges of the crystal, casting rays of color around the room.

I sealed the top of the gem and attached it to a titanium and silver necklace chain I had created from spare metal Rarity said I could use. I put it around my head and then hid the crystal beneath my shirt.

After saying goodbyes for the evening, I decided to join Twilight and stay at the library, in case a letter came from Princess Celestia.

Twilight settled back down into her books, studying into the night. I found a good book myself and began to read for an hour or so. Afterwards I walked over to the couch where Twilight was sitting.

I began to rub her back. "You should really get some sleep; you've been at this for hours."

"I know…" she said. "But there are always new things to learn, and I'm not done reading all of the books in this library yet."

I continued to massage her back until she dropped the book onto the floor. "There's always tomorrow." I put a slip of paper inside to keep her spot, and then continued to massage her back until she was asleep.

I walked back over to Spike and made sure he was tucked away, and then I found a good chair and slowly fell into a deep slumber.

-  
>Author's Notes:<p>

Well, happy 11/11/11! If only this was the 11th chapter…oh well.

Thanks to those who have served in the armed forces around the globe, you guys are what allow us to have the freedoms to do stuff like this.

I can't really think of anything to say about the chapter itself. That's a first.


	8. Chapter 8 p1: The Journey Begins

Note: This chapter was so long that I had to break it up into 2 sections, but it covers only one day's events, unlike the other days, which were only covered by one chapter.

Chapter 8: Part 1: The Journey Begins

I made sure to wake up early to prepare for my trip to Canterlot. To my astonishment, Twilight was already up and back to reading her books.

I walked over to the room where she was studying. "Good morning! Any word from Princess Celestia?"

"You're up! And unfortunately there's been no word yet."

"I think I'm going to head out anyways; I don't want to wait for the weather to clear up."

I picked up my things, grabbed a quick bite to eat, and started for the door. To my surprise, I was met by six ponies waiting to see me off when I turned around the corner.

"Josh!" Pinkie Pie yelled. "We wanted to say goodbye before you left for Canterlot!"

"Hey, you're all here! Thanks for everything this past week, it's probably been the most exciting time of my life. I might be back in a day or two; I'm not sure at this point."

Rarity walked up to me, levitating some clothes in front of her. "This is a cloak I made for your trip. I figured that without it you might get some funny looks from some of the ponies in Canterlot."

It was a brilliant white with sky blue accents. She continued her explanation: "It's created from some of the finest thermal insulation material in all of Equestria, so you won't get cold."

I smiled at Rarity. "You are a lifesaver Rarity."

I looked up as Fluttershy floated over and put a pink flower in my hair. "Um…I hope this reminds you of us while you're away. Say hi to the princess for us!"

"Will do."

After saying final goodbyes and putting on the large cloak, I started out the door. The air was bitterly cold, and a frost had settled on the ground. It was still pretty early when I got outside; the sun was just beginning to rise, creating a vibrant pink and yellow color on the horizon.

It took me a good fifteen minutes to get to the carriage station. The carriage that was parked in the station was beautifully crafted, with room for five ponies inside, and a small area in the back for luggage. When I got there, the carriage was already full.

A gruff, older stallion was directing the traffic. "I'm sorry sir, but we don't have any more room inside for passengers. You're going to have to wait until the next carriage arrives."

I kept my hood down. "I don't really have that kind of time…do you have room _outside_ of the carriage?"

He turned back and looked at me. "What do you mean?"

"Do you mind if I rode on the back of the carriage?"

"It would be dangerous…but doable I guess. It's only designed for use when on the ground or for carrying baggage, but I suppose if you wanted to sit up on top…"

"I'll have to do that then. I need to get to Canterlot before the snow begins to fall."

"There's supposed to be snow today? Then we'd better get rolling!" He turned towards the two pegasi that were pulling the carriage. You two, take off for Canterlot, and hurry!"

I still wasn't quite used to the whole flight-without-any-safety-features idea, but I eventually settled in after we got off the ground. I leaned back took a quick nap, being careful to stay as alert as possible in case we encountered turbulence.

I was awoken a couple hours later by a cold dot touching my cheek. "Snow…" I said to myself.

As the minutes past, the snowstorm got worse and worse. "We're going to need to land soon, we can't fly like this much longer." The pegasi yelled back at us.

We touched down outside a town slightly smaller than Ponyville. We were near the base of the mountain where Canterlot was situated. I stepped off of the carriage and paid the drivers. "Thank you for taking me at least this far."

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to need to walk the rest of the way. That's my only other option."

As I was walking away, I heard another pony get off behind me. The drivers asked the passenger the same question. "Well *cough* I need to deliver these letters to Canterlot _today_."

I turned around at the sound of the voice. "Why, you're Ditzy Doo!"

She was dressed in a heavy coat and mittens. "Yes…how do you know me? Was it something I did?..." she asked shyly.

"It seems that we're going to the same place, why don't you join me? I could use some company, and I'll explain everything on the way."

"Really? That would be great…"

After we were started up the mountain, I took my hood off. She looked over at me with a questioning look in her eyes. I started my story. "You've never seen a human before, have you? Well, I'm Joshua, and I'm a human from a different dimension."

"How did you get here?"

"I'm not really sure how I ended up here in Equestria. I'm hoping to see Princess Celestia in order to find a way back."

Her eyes lit up. "Really? You're going to see Princess Celestia? I've always wanted to meet her, but I'm always afraid that something will go wrong…"

"As for how I know you, we have stories about Equestria, and it mentions you in it. A lot of people took a liking to you."

She was still trying to take it all in. "…Really? Some know me there? Most ponies here get upset with my clumsiness, and some of them call me 'Derpy' behind my back."

I smiled at her. "I know that there are others who like you for who you are though, right here in Equestria."

She seemed to brighten up, and she went on to explain her job and all of the places that she had visited in the last week. We trekked through the snowy trails for an hour or two when the simple snowstorm turned into a blizzard. We found a cave alongside the cliff and settled down for a while.

She still seemed cold in her sweatshirt and mittens, so I walked over and sat down next to her. I covered her up with my cloak, and rubbed her back to try and warm her up.

"Ahh…thanks Josh. I didn't think it would be this cold up here."

"Neither did I. It looks like the blizzard is tapering off though…"

I took out two apples and gave one to her. We ate in silence and watched the snow swirl around the mountains. After ten minutes or so, it was over. Although it was a short lived blizzard, it managed to put another half an inch of snow on the ground.

I put my cloak back on and we resumed our climb. By the time we had ascended the mountain, it was past 4:00. Ditzy was the first to see the castle.

"There it is! I've only been here a couple times; the pony who was supposed to deliver the mail to Canterlot was sick today, so I had to take her position."

It was definitely a relief to see the glowing silhouette. The towers on the left of the castle hung out over the edge of the cliff, making the castle look like it connected with the sky. There were lights that were directed up into the air, shining off of the falling snow and creating columns of glowing ice crystals in the air against the darkening sky.

Security was pretty lax at the main gate, and the drawbridge looked like it was there for decoration rather than defense purposes, but Ditzy assured me that it was fully functional.

I was happy to get indoors where it was warm, and Ditzy even more so. When we walked into the first room, I was struck by its enormous size. There were beautiful stained glass windows, drawings of constellations in the floor, and gold accents on the furniture and banisters. A massive crystal chandelier hung from the ceiling, scattering random shafts of light onto the walls.

"It was good talking with you, now I have to get these letters to the postal pony in charge of Canterlot. I'll see you later!"

I waved her a goodbye. "Thanks for joining me! Stay safe on your journeys!"

I wandered into the next room, where two guards were standing. I still hadn't taken off my cloak; I wanted to stay under the radar for the time being.

Without facing the guards, I asked them a question: "Excuse me, is there a way I can see Princess Celestia?"

They turned and looked at me with a hard stare. "No, we don't allow visitors into the throne room without sufficient reason. Even if you had permission, she's actually away right now, visiting Phillydelphia for some sort of event. She won't be back until tomorrow."

I continued walking and thought it over. "_So that's why she didn't respond to our letter…she wasn't around to get it._"

I wandered the halls of the enormous castle until I emerged in a courtyard inside the walls of the castle. There was an outdoor garden (now covered with snow) and a pathway that led to an inner keep. It was a secondary wall that was there to provide a second line of defense. It stretched in a half circle around the towers that stood out over the cliff side. The drawbridge was down, but the gate was closed, and it didn't look like the guards were letting anyone through.

"_This must be the building where the throne room is…"_ I began to walk across the wooden draw bridge.

One of the guards stepped forward. "Hold it right there. Who are you and what are you doing here?"

I kept my face out of view. "My name isn't exactly important at the moment. I wrote to the princess this morning on order to get a session with her. She never responded, so I decided to come anyways."

"I'm sorry, but we can't let anyone through until Princess Celestia gives the word. This area is off limits until she returns."

I thought I saw a movement in one of the tower windows, but when I looked, there was nobody there.

"Is there anybody here at all? Or has everyone left for the evening?"

They looked a little hesitant to answer. "No, nobody should be inside right now, it's all empty."

"_Something isn't right here…I have to get in there and see what's going on. Besides, I didn't come here just to be turned away…_"

"Thank you anways." I walked back to the garden, and then turned so I was out of view. I had an idea, and I tried it, but I really shouldn't have. The wall to the inner keep was pretty uneven, and there were vines that led up the side of the wall, out of view of the guards. I looked up at the top of the wall. "_Here goes nothing._"

Author's Notes:

Finally some action begins! Part 2 covers the rest of the day's adventures.


	9. Chapter 8 p2: Infiltrating Canterlot

Chapter 8: Part 2: Infiltrating Canterlot

I started my ascent of the vines, making sure I had a good grip on the vine, and stable footing in the icy wind. Slowly but surely, I scaled the wall, and vaulted over the battlements (the wall that protects people on the upper walkway of a castle wall).

"_So far, so good…"_

I continued to slide between shadows in the snowy air. My white cloak helped to hide my presence against the snowy surroundings. I dashed over to one of the drum towers (a small guard tower built into a wall), and took a quite break. All was silent; and true to the guard's word, I hadn't seen anypony inside the inner keep. Then again, I had the majority of the towers to check still.

I made my way along the side wall and into a side entrance to the main structure. I was continually amazed at the architecture; walking into the main section of the castle revealed an even more extravagant design than the outer buildings.

I peeked into the throne room, which was on the second floor of the castle. It was empty, and all of the lights were put out. It was obvious that no one was there. As I walked back towards the outer guard towers, I heard a commotion outside. The guards somehow knew I was inside.

"_How did they find out? I was out of sight the whole time._" I looked up into the sky at the falling snow. Suddenly it hit me. "_The snow! They must have found my footprints! How could I have overlooked that? Now I have to get out of here before anypony finds me…_"

I ran back to the place where I had entered, but the gate was beginning to rise, and a platoon of guards was entering the inner keep. "_Well I'm not getting out that way…The only other direction is in and up._"

I retreated further back into the towers, making sure to keep my out for any other ponies. After reaching the fourth floor, I was running out of hiding spots. The guards had now spread out, and were systematically clearing every room from the bottom up. I was in the second tallest tower, off to the side of the others.

Since two guards stayed behind at each major chokepoint to make sure no one slipped by them, the higher the search went, the fewer guards there were. I darted towards a spiraling staircase, but I caught myself at the last moment when I saw the shadows of the guards coming up. Looking around the area, I saw a door. By the time they reached the fourth and fifth floor, there were only four guards left.

I looked around the hallway and hid myself in the third room. They checked every room in the hallway, but when they came to this room, they passed it by.

"We shouldn't need to check this room."

"I think we should check just in case."

"Are you kidding? You can go in there if you want. I'm not going to."

Thoughts were racing through my head. "_Why wouldn't they check this room?_" I began to look around at the walls. It was dark, possibly darker than most of the rooms in the building, but there was a blue glow that emanated from the walls.

One guard poked his head in the room warily, but he quickly retreated back to the hallway, and they continued their search on the floors above. After they were gone, I slowly emerged from my hiding place in the shadows. I slowly looked around the corner of the doorway into the hallway. The hallway was only thirty or forty feet long, and it was all clear. I began to step towards the door, I heard footsteps right directly behind me. I froze in place.

"WHO ARE YOU, AND WHAT ARE YOU DOING HERE?"

I turned my head to meet the mysterious pony. In a wave of shock, it was _Princess Luna!_ She stood just as tall as I me.

I went to one knee. "Princess Luna, please forgive the intrusion. I didn't know that you were here."

Her voice was deafening. "EXPLAIN YOURSELF."

"I left this morning from Ponyville this morning, hoping to find Princess Celestia and have a meeting with her. The guards told me that the towers were empty, so when I saw someone in the window, I became suspicious and decided to check for myself. You must have been the figure that I saw in the window."

"PONYVILLE?" she asked.

"Yes. Princess, may I make a suggestion? Could you please talk in a normal voice? It's a little harsh on the ears."

I continued my explanation. "What I don't understand, is why the guards lied to me. They must have known that you were in here."

"PONYVILLE?" she asked.

"Yes. Princess, may I make a suggestion? Could you please talk in a normal voice? Your current volume is a little harsh on the ears."

She let out a deep sigh. "…Everyone seems to cringe when I talk like that, and no one seems to want to talk to me."

I stood up. "Princess, you have a beautiful voice as it is. As far as I know, no one has used that voice in a long time. Everypony probably thinks that you're upset with them."

"I suppose that makes sense…Anyways, I was looking through my sister's letters, and there was one from her student mentioning someone who wanted to get in touch. You wouldn't happen to be Joshua, would you?"

"That would be me."

She had a suspicious look on her face. "But do you have any way to prove it? If you don't have a way to prove it, I'm going to call the guards."

I took off my hood. "I can't think of a way to prove it at the moment…if you give me a while, I might be able to-"

"Stop." She said. She looked at my hair. "That flower in your hair…that's a specialty that's grown around Ponyville. That's the only place it grows, so you must have been from Ponyville recently, seeing as it still looks healthy, even though it's been cut."

I had completely forgotten about the flower that Fluttershy had given me. It had survived the wind and cold of the trek up to Canterlot, and was still in my hair.

The guards came back down, and one of them walked into the room.

"Princess-"

Before the guard could see me, she stepped in front of me, blocking me from view. She looked at the guard. "Yes?"

He looked afraid. "Sorry to disturb you princess, but we have reason to believe that there is an intruder inside the inner keep. We have searched every room, but we haven't been able to find him."

"I haven't seen anyone come up the tower, so if I do I'll let you know. You may be dismissed."

I breathed a quick sigh of relief. The guard bowed and exited the room, closing the door behind him. I finally got a chance to look around the room. There were constellations and shining stars all over the room.

"The thing I don't understand is why the guards lied to me. I asked if anyone was in the towers, and they said that no one was here. So when I saw a movement, I got suspicious."

Princess Luna turned back towards me. "I think you deserve an explanation." She said with a note of dismay in her voice. "We've had so much going on that I haven't gotten any time to study up on Equestria since my return from the moon, and between raising the moon and stars in the evening, and attending to the royal duties, I haven't gotten much sleep either. I had everyone clear the inner castle so I could read up on some spells, finish attending to some royal duties, and get some rest without an interruption. I also made the guards tell visitors that everyone was gone, so that people would leave me be. Now that I look back on it, that wasn't a very honest thing to do…"

"That makes sense to me; it's good to have a little time to yourself once and a while. I apologize for ruining your peace and quiet here though."

"I forgive you, I should have told the guards to be more forthcoming with information."

She took a seat on a couch over near the window. It was still snowing outside, and Luna had a fire going in the fireplace off to the right of the room.

"So why are you here?" Princess Luna asked. "And why do you need to see Princess Luna?"

"It's a long story…are you sure you want to hear it?"

She gave me a quick smile. "We have all night. Take a seat."

I sat down next to her on the couch and told her all about my adventures in Equestria; the fall down to the planet's surface, meeting the mane six, my dragon encounter, and my trip up to the castle. The whole story took a couple of hours to recount.

"…and that's where I'm hoping your sister can help me. I figure if any pony knows how I could get home, it would be her."

"My, you've had quite the adventure." She said. "My sister will be back tomorrow morning sometime; I'll make sure you get a chance to see her."

The fire had died down to a few glowing coals, and it was late at night. The princess looked deep into thought.

There was one thing I had been dying to ask, and I figured it was now or never. "Princess Luna?"

"Hmm?"

"Forgive me if this sounds slightly crazy, but…can I feel your mane?"

She turned and looked at me with an inquisitive look. "What for?"

"It's something I've always wanted to feel for myself, and it's simply beautiful. I guess that's all there is to it. If it helps at all, I think I can help you get some sleep. It's a trick that seemed to work well with other ponies."

"I guess there's no harm in it…" she trailed off.

Her hair was probably the most wondrous in all the ponies of Equestria. It glowed a deep blue color with stars that shone through. On top of that, it was long and silky smooth. I began to stroke her mane like I had done all throughout the week with the other ponies. She closed her eyes and laid her head down on the edge of the couch.

"You can rest here for the evening if you wish. And if it's not too big of a request, would you keep doing that? It feels good."

I smiled at her. "No problem."

I kept stroking her flowing mane for another half hour or so, watching the snow fall outside. I was glad that I was indoors and not stuck outside. Eventually, I laid my head against her side, with her glowing hair beneath my head. She was nice and warm, and ever so slowly, I drifted off to sleep.

Author's Notes:

HAHAHA! I've been looking forward to writing this chapter for days now. It's good to finally get it out of my system. I've been waiting to unleash Joshua inside Canterlot, and now I've finally done it.


	10. Chapter 9 p1: A Day with Royalty

Chapter 9-1: A Day with Royalty

I woke up looking into Luna's deep galaxy hair. I was always captivated by her sparkling hair, no matter how many times I looked. Snow was still drifting down from the sky. I turned to face the window, and I reflected on all that had happened that week. "_Well here I am. I spent the night with one of the Princesses of Equestria. How many people can say that?_"

I hadn't noticed it, but Princess Luna was already awake, but she hadn't moved off of the couch. "The snow is beautiful, isn't it?"

"I didn't even notice you were up!"

"You looked so comfortable resting there, I didn't want to move and wake you up…" She followed my gaze out the window and began to reminisce about days long past. "Celestia and I used to love to play together when it snowed. We would have snowball fights with each other, but she would always win." She had a warm smile on her face. "By the way, thanks for the massage last night." She blushed a bright red. "That felt really nice…do you think you could do it again sometime?"

I laughed. "Of course."

I couldn't believe how much different Luna was compared to the other ponies. She was as tall as I was, and she resembled a teenager in her actions and speech rather than a younger child, like the mane six. "Do you want something to eat? We have virtually anything you could ask for…"

"I'm not picky, and I'm always open to suggestions."

"Well let's head down to the dining hall, and I'll see what I can do for you."

I donned my white and sky blue cloak, and we descended the spiraling stairs together. She explained some of the history of the castle, and some of the old traditions that she remembered from before her moon experience.

"I apologize if this is a troubling subject, but how did you cope with being there for so long? That must have been terrible…"

"I used a spell to put myself to sleep for that thousand year period. I was suspended in a spell for almost the whole time; I suppose that's why I remember everything from before so well."

When we got downstairs, the guards were back at their posts in the inner keep. "Good morning Princess Luna, how are-" then they noticed me. I never lifted my hood, or even looked at them. I just kept my attention forwards.

"You! Princess, he's the intruder from last night! Stop right there-"

She lifted a wing between me and them. "Leave him be, he's a friend of mine."

"Princess? Are you sure?"

"I'm positive. He'll be accompanying me for the rest of the day."

At the dining hall, Princess Luna offered me practically every food imaginable.

"Like I said, I'm not picky. Whatever you want to have, I'll be fine with."

We ended up having some rich chocolate cake and some exotic fruits. At the very least, the fruit was healthy. Afterwards, Luna invited me to join her on a walk. "I usually take a short walk around the courtyard after breakfast, do you want to join me?"

I smiled at her. "I would be honored."

We headed outside the door of the castle, into a grayish-white wonderland of snow. She was pretty silent while we were outside, which seemed out of place considering all the talking we had done inside. "Is something bothering you Princess?"

"Hmm? Oh it's nothing. I'm just wondering if Celestia will be late because of the snow…"

"I'm sure she'll be fine." I said. "Princess, how skilled are you with magic?"

"I've studied it for hundreds of years; there are only a couple ponies at most who have more experience than I do."

"I have a question for you…is there a spell you could use on me that would allow me to use magic? Humans in their native state are completely devoid of magic capabilities, and it looks like a handy skill to have."

"I'm not really sure…I do recall an experiment done on an earth pony once like that, but I don't remember how it turned out. Let's go inside and have a look, shall we?"

We returned to her room, where she pulled a couple ancient books off of the shelf. She blew the dust off of them, and carefully opened the pages. "Here it is…the results of the test showed that it was impossible to imbue that kind of power into a living being, it was too great a stress on them. However, a similar effect could be achieved if the subject had a gem that held the magic properties…"

I felt at my chest. I still had the crystal with liquid rainbow inside. I tugged it out of my shirt, and it cast multi-colored light around Luna's room. She looked over the book. "What is that? It's beautiful…"

"I made it by drilling the center out of a gem I found, and I poured some liquid rainbow from Cloudsdale into it. The result is this colorful creation."

She put on a huge smile. "Really? I haven't seen the liquid rainbows since before I went to the moon! I'm going to try something. Take the necklace off."

I pulled the necklace off and Luna pulled it out of my hand using her magic. She took a wider stance, closed her eyes, and focused pointed her horn at the gem. As her horn glowed, light swirled into the crystal, and ever so slowly, Luna formed what appeared to be a tiny galaxy inside.

She floated the gem back over to me. "Try it on."

I stared at the crystal. Sure enough, an intricate galaxy with dozens of tiny stars was suspended inside crystal. "What is this?"

"It's the essence of my magic." She explained. "With that, you will virtually never run out of magic energy, but the gem has to be on you for it to work. Liquid rainbow is used in higher tier spells due to its magic conduction properties. I used some of it was used in creating that tiny galaxy, so not all of it is there anymore. Only about half of the rainbow is left."

I slid the necklace back on and underneath my shirt. "Now what?"

"Now," she said "You can look around my library and find a spell you want to use. I'll give you a crash course in magic before my sister gets here."

I spent the next half hour or so looking through various books, asking some questions, and thinking about the practicality of some of the spells. Some of them I could tell were going to be far beyond what I could do. Presently, I came to a spell that sped up the movement speed of an object.

"Hey Luna, do you think I could use this spell on myself?"

She walked over and looked at the spell I was pointing to. "I'm not really sure…it was designed to be used to move objects only once, so the moment you stop moving, you would need to activate the spell again."

"Can we try it?"

"Sure, let's go down to the main hall. I'm pretty sure it's empty right now."

We walked back downstairs to the main hall, which was empty and devoid of furniture for the moment. Through Luna's explanation, she slowly but surely taught me how to use magic. I couldn't really describe it though; it's like having a sixth sense that you've never experienced before. It's like taste, touch, and smell, you can all do those things without even thinking about it, so I can relate to you what something smells like, and you can imagine it for yourself. But with magic, it has a completely different sensation; you would need to be able to use magic for me to describe it to you.

It took a couple hours just for me to get the basics down, and by that time it was a ways past 10:00 in the morning.

"Alright, here we go." I began running in a straight line towards the opposite wall. With a spark of lightning underneath my feet, my vision went blurry, and I almost ran into the far wall. I sat down and tried to collect my senses. Pulling off a stunt like that was physically exhausting.

Luna was ecstatic. "You did it!"

I groaned. "Yeah, but not without messing up my vision for a couple seconds...I'd never be able to use this realistically. When I use it, my eyesight can't keep up with that kind of speed, so I would run into a wall and _then_ see the wall coming at me a moment _after _I hit it."

She thought about it for a moment. "That means you'll need to learn a perception spell. Let's take a break; you've been at this for a couple hours. You should really let your body rest before you try again."

We walked back up to her room, and she began reminiscing about Celestia again. "I remember studying magic with my sister. She always took it really seriously, but I took it in a more lighthearted way." She giggled. "Do you happen to have any more of that liquid rainbow left?"

I felt inside my pocket, and brought out the full vial of rainbow and the mostly empty one. She gasped. "I haven't seen this in ages!" she said with delight. She had the biggest grin on her face. "Do you mind if I have those?"

"Sure, I owe you for the magic lessons." She floated the full vial over to her desk, where she carefully placed it on a rack. As for the other one, she began to open the vial and begin to pull a container out from underneath the desk.

"What are you doing?"

She was trying to keep from giggling. "I used to do this all the time back when we were younger; it drove my sister crazy." She poured the remains of the vial into the container, and then poured some water in to dilute the colors. To my shock, she poured the mixture all over her hair, staining it a soft rainbow color. "Hehehe, look! I'm Celestia." She broke down laughing.

I couldn't help but laugh with her. It wasn't so much the hair that was funny; it was her uncontrollable laughter that was contagious. She splashed some in my hair and I levitated a little and threw it back. By the time we were done, we had stained parts of her room with rainbow colors.

The door opened as Luna was throwing a splash of color, and it hit whoever was at the door. I turned around, and saw that it was Princess Celestia herself. She was dripping with the rainbow colored water. Luna looked shocked, and then broke down in laughter. "Tia!" she giggled.

Princess Celestia didn't quite understand what was going on. "Luna! Are you alright?" She looked at me. "What are you doing to my sister! How dare you-" Celestia began charging for some sort of spell.

Luna yelled at me. "Josh, don't get caught in that spell! _Run_!"

As the magic beam flew at me, and I braced myself.

Author's Notes:

The infamous Celestia appears!

I really like Luna as a character, so I think I'll keep Josh and Luna pretty close for the duration of this story.


	11. Chapter 9 p2: The Two Sisters

Chapter 9-2: The Two Sisters

I knew it was going to hurt, but it was better than being hit with the spell that Princess Celestia was preparing. I accelerated in a blur, only stopping once I hit a bookshelf on the other edge of the room. Using the spell even over such a short distance put me out of breath.

Luna was defensive. "Tia! Stop! He's alright!"

I knelt down, hiding my face underneath my hood. "My apologies for the confusion Princess."

Princess Celestia was confused. "Who is this?" She looked over at Luna, and then let out motherly sigh. "And Luna, why is your hair…" she smiled at her sister, "…colored like mine?"

Luna tried to contain her laughter. "Hehehe, this is Joshua, and we just met yesterday." She let out a relaxed sigh and calmed down. "He was hoping to see you actually, but you weren't around. He managed to get past the guards out front after I told them that nobody was around. He saw me, and then went to go investigate. We've had a great time doing all sorts of stuff! He brought some liquid rainbow from Cloudsdale, and I couldn't resist!"

I stood up and took off my hood. "It's an honor to meet you Princess Celestia."

"We'll discuss whatever you need down in the throne room, I'm going to head there right now." She turned to Luna. "And YOU young lady need to clean those rainbows out of your hair." She smiled.

I joined Princess Luna on her way to the royal bathing area. She jumped into the pool of warm water and started to clean out her hair. I walked over and kneeled at the edge of the pool. "What are you doing? You can go see my sister now if you want…"

I smiled at her. "I figured I would help you clean out your hair, since it's partially my fault that your hair is like this in the first place." It was a long and tedious process, and she was grateful for the help.

"Thanks Josh, that made it go a lot quicker. Usually it takes me half an hour to get this stuff out." She started giggling again to herself. "Did you see the look on Tia's face? That was priceless!"

After we had cleaned most of her hair, I left and walked to another building where the throne room was. It was beautifully lit with stained glass windows and massive chandeliers. I kneeled when I approached the throne. "Princess."

"There's no need for formality. First off, I have to thank you." She began.

I looked up at her. "Thank me for what?"

She smiled. "I haven't seen Luna that happy in a very long time. It was good to see her back to her usual fun loving self. Now, tell me your story."

Over the course of the next couple hours, I recounted all that had happened to me with the freefall, the mane six, the dragon, and my ascent to Canterlot, answering any questions Princess Celestia had as she asked them.

"What I need Princess, is a way to get home. As much fun as this has been, and as much as I love it here, there are people who need me back at home. I figured if anyone could help me, it would be you."

She thought it over. "There is only one spell that could achieve something of that magnitude, and it would require magically infused gemstones of the highest grade."

I pulled out my necklace and looked at it. Princess Celestia took notice of it immediately. "That…is precisely what we would need. Luna must have put some of her power into that; I can feel it from here. You must have been trying to perform spells. But what is that color?" She lifted it out of my hand. "Is this…rainbows?"

"Yes, I drilled out the center and poured some liquid rainbows inside it, and then I fused the pieces back together. I just thought it would look cool."

"I have never thought to do that…Using rainbows incased in a gem would make it the magic much stronger. It combines the best of both worlds: the powerful magic accelerant of liquid rainbows, and the rigid magic containment properties of a crystal."

"Whatever spells you were trying to perform, will now be made four times as strong, and twice as stable." She touched her horn to it, and all of the liquid rainbow disappeared. The only thing left was a deep blue galaxy, with liquid sunlight swirling around it, which cast a beautiful glow around the room. "It takes both of us sisters to create magical harmony."

She gave the gem back to me. "Thank you Princess."

"Feel free to just call me Celestia, or Tia if you feel inclined."

"Thank you Princ-, er, Celestia."

I decided to give the lightning step another try. I started running, and then shot to the other end of the room in a blur. _"I could actually see what I was doing! I can use this now!_" As an added bonus, I didn't lose as much energy when I moved from place to place.

Celestia raised an eyebrow. "That was impressive; I couldn't follow your movements. You're visible for the first three feet or so, but mid flight you're almost completely invisible."

I smiled at her. "I have to thank your sister for that. She gave me a crash course in magic this morning."

"Is that what you used in Luna's room to escape my spell? At first I thought it had hit you, but I was confused when I saw you in the corner of the room."

"Yep, that's what I used. The only problem was that using this lightning step, I couldn't see a thing, and I ran out of breath after using just one of them. Now both of those problems are fixed."

"We're going to need some things to get you home. I'll write you a list later when I get a spare moment. Do you know where you got that gem?"

"Hmm...I believe it was in the Everfree forest, but I'm not sure exactly where in the forest it was."

"Keep that in the back of your head, and if you remember where you found it, write it down. I'll arrange to have a carriage take you back to Ponyville whenever this storm lets up."

"I don't know what to say. Thank you for your generosity Princess."

She smiled at me. "I thought I said to just call me 'Celestia'. By the way, feel free stay here in Canterlot whenever you would like."

A sudden thought came to my head. "If you don't mind, I'll be back in a little bit. I have to go do something."

"I'll be right here attending to the citizen's requests, so feel free to walk in anytime."

I bowed and exited the room with a lightning step. It's probably the best to leave in style; one moment you're there, and with a spark of lightning under your feet and a hiss of superheated air, you're gone.

I stopped in front of a couple guards at the inner drawbridge, who jumped at my sudden appearance. I couldn't exactly control my stop at first, so every time I slowed down out of a lightning step, there was a dull "thud" sound from my body hitting the wind in the sudden deceleration. "_That's something I'm going to need to work on…In ideal conditions this would be perfectly silent._"

I turned towards one of the guards. "Excuse me, can you direct me to the postal center?"

"Um, it's a couple blocks over there…" He pointed to where the postal center was. With the hiss of melting snow and hot air, I disappeared. They were dumbfounded.

I came to a stop in front of the post office door. I walked through the door and out of the snow. I looked around. There was a unicorn sorting the letters behind the counter., and she looked over at me. "Is there something I can do for you?"

"Is there a pegasus named Ditzy Doo here?"

"Yes, she's in the staff area. I'll go get her."

She walked back and called for Ditzy. She walked out looking a little depressed.

"Ditzy! How are you?'

Her eyes lit up. "Josh! I'm okay I guess. Canterlot is huge, and I've never had to deliver this many letters before." The unicorn behind the counter gave her a bag of letters. "These are supposed to go to the royal family. DON'T lose them."

"Sorry Josh, I've got to take care of this."

"I'll join you, I was going to head over there anyways."

"Really? That would be great…I've been wanting some company."

My legs were beginning to hurt a little from the stress of moving my body up to such speeds, so I decided to walk normally for a while. I talked about some of the things that I had done in Canterlot, but I kept my meeting with the princess' a secret.

Ditzy was wondering where I was taking her. "This isn't where I'm supposed to take these letters; I'm supposed to leave them off for the Princess' over there." She pointed to a room off to the side.

I smiled at her. "Don't worry about it. Just trust me on this one."

When we walked through the door of the area before the throne room, the guards stopped us. "We're sorry, but both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna have restricted access to the throne room. They have mentioned only a couple names of ponies they will let through. What is your name?"

"Josh! This is the throne room! What are we doing here?"

"Princess Luna saw the commotion out of the corner of her eye. "It's alright, let them through."

I made a short lightning step right by the gaurds, reappearing ten or twenty feet behind them. A sharp pain shot through my legs, but I tried to conceal it. "_That's the last time I'm going to be able to do that for a while._" "Come on Ditzy!"

She looked confused, and timidly walked through the door into the throne room. Princess Celestia was sitting on her throne, and Princess Luna was sitting off to the left in a couch engaging in a conversation. They stopped what they were doing and looked over at me, and then at Ditzy. Ditzy was trembling, and she bowed when she saw both of the princesses.

"Who is this?"

"This is Ditzy Doo from Ponyville. She's currently doing the job of the mailpony here in Canterlot until they can get feeling well again. She had mentioned that she wanted to meet you two, so I figured I would introduce you to each other."

Celestia smiled. "It's nice to meet you."

Luna jumped up and gave Ditzy a hug. "I had heard that the regular mailpony was sick, so I was wondering who would be dropping off our mail in the mornings. Thanks for doing that for us!" Luna winked at me, and Ditzy looked embarrassed.

"It's nothing really…" she said shyly. "Oh, here's your mail by the way. She pulled a bundle of letters that were tied together with some string.

Celestia lifted the package across the room, and scanned through its contents. "Thanks for your service, I do appreciate it."

Ditzy was pretty overwhelmed by it all, but she had the biggest smile on her face for the rest of the day. She thanked me when she was in the courtyard. "Thanks Josh, that was wonderful."

"Don't mention it."

I put my white hood back on, went back to the throne room, and took a seat next to Luna, where the princesses were talking with the ponies that came to have a session with them.

Some of the problems were fairly serious, an illness that needed to be treated, etc., while some were general need for advice. Celestia did most of the talking. She looked right at home helping the ponies, and she actually looked like she enjoyed it.

At one point, there was a pegasi couple who walked in and asked for some advice for a marriage party. "We're not quite sure who to talk to about it. We need to hire a wedding planner, food, a dress, someone to take care of our pets…"

While Celestia was pondering the problem, I leaned over to Princess Luna and whispered in her ear. "You know, this looks like something that Twilight and her friends could do. Twilight could plan the wedding, the Apple family could prepare the food, Rarity could design the dress…"

"That's a great idea." Princess Luna stood up. "Do you mind if I take this one Celestia?"

"Go right ahead."

"I suggest you go to Ponyville for your wedding. There's a boutique owned by Rarity who designs some of the best dresses in all of Equestria, and the Apple family makes some of the best food you'll find. Celestia, do you think you could write to Twilight and see if she and her friends would be interested in taking this job?"

"That's a good suggestion, I'll write to them now…" she floated a quill and paper over and started wrote down a quick message, and then sent it in a puff of smoke. A moment later, a message was returned. Princess Celestia smiled. "They said that they would be happy to do it."

Celestia turned to the couple. "Tell them that the royal princesses recommended them, and that Joshua suggested it."

They bowed and left. Luna looked over at Celestia. "Tia, I think we should call it an evening. You've been at it ever since you got back. Besides, you still need to look over all of those letters."

Celestia sighed. "Perhaps you're right…" She stood up and walked down from the throne. "I'm going to retire to my room, just let me know if you need anything."

I ate dinner with Luna, and she too retired to her room. "You should go give my sister a massage. Just tell her I told you to do it. She looks so tired…"

I walked up the tower to Celestia's room. When I got there, she was reading over messages in the glow of the fireplace and a candle light. "Celestia?"

"Hmm? Oh hello there Josh." She floated a piece of paper over to me. "That's the list of things we need to get you back home. It's a fairly short list, and Twilight should know how to get most of it." I walked over and started to massage her back. I was struck by her sheer size, she was even taller than Luna, and she was the first pony that was taller than me (instead of shorter or the same size).

"Thanks Josh, maybe that will help me relax a little." She continued to read the notes, and eventually she put her head down to rest. A little while later she was asleep, and I blew out the candle. I exited the room, making sure to close the door behind me.

I turned into the face of a pony. "Hey there." I nearly had a heart attack. It was Luna.

"It's you! Don't do that! You startled me…"

She giggled to herself. "Sorry about that. Thanks for helping my sis out. She really needs to get more sleep."

"What are you doing here?"

She looked a little sheepish. "Well…You promised me that you would do that for me again sometime…"

"That's true, I did say that, didn't I?"

She brightened up. "Will you?"

"Of course." I smiled at her.

"I need to do one thing first. Follow me!"

She led me to a platform that extended out over the cliff side. All of Equestria was visible. Luna stood in the middle of the circular platform, extended her wings, and closed her eyes. When she focused, small magic symbols spread all over the ground until a glowing symbol formed, and then a column of deep blue light shot into the sky. Ever so slowly, the moon rose from behind the mountains.

"That. Is. Awesome."

Then the light stopped, and Luna folded her wings back up, and teetered ever so slightly.

"Luna?"

She looked back at me. "I'm fine. It just takes a lot of energy to move the moon."

We walked back up to her room, where she collapsed on her bed with a sigh of relief. I walked over and began stroking her mane. I gravitated towards Luna more than Celestia, probably because she acted more like me than Celestia did. "Thanks for everything Josh." She smiled and closed her eyes. "…Especially the hair dye." she giggled.

"Luna…You, Celestia, Twilight, and all her friends are like a family I never had. I think this has been the best week of my life."

She looked over at me. "I'm glad." I leaned against her side, and she put her wing over me. After a couple minutes of looking at the snow fall, I fell asleep resting against her galaxy hair.

Author's Notes:

Yet another awesome chapter to write. 'Nuff said.


	12. Chapter 10: The Search Begins

11/13/11 note: I've been taking quite a bit of time to write this (adding around 2000-4000 words per day), so I might take a break until Wednesday (11/15/11) before I add chapter 11. Okay, who am I kidding. I'll probably end up writing it tomorrow. I had to say this in case I didn't end up writing it.

Chapter 10: The Search Begins

I woke up early in the morning to an annoying prodding in my side.

I kept my eyes closed. "Luna, you couldn't have just let me sleep for a couple more minutes?..."

To my surprise, it wasn't Luna that responded. "No, I'm not going to let you sleep for another couple minutes. The carriage headed for Ponyville is leaving in a couple minutes."

I jumped at her voice. It was Princess Celestia. "Celestia! Sorry about that, I-"

Celestia laughed. "No explanation required. Just get out there before the carriage leaves."

Luna started giggling again.

"Oh now don't you start that again…"

I threw my white cloak on and looked outside. The snow had stopped falling, and there was a wonderful sunrise starting over Equestria.

Luna walked up next to me. "It's beautiful, isn't it? I might be known for enjoying the stars and the evening hours, but I like the transitions just as much."

"Luna, thanks for letting me stay here. It was a blast."

"Yes, yes it was. I know there's family probably waiting for you back at home, but I wouldn't mind _too _ much if you had to stay here."

I chuckled at her. "We still have no idea if this spell will even work. Besides, I'll be around for a while, at least until I can gather everything that's required."

We headed down to the staging area. Before I jumped in the carriage, I turned back to the sisters and bowed. "Thank you for everything; I had a wonderful time, and it was nice meeting you."

Celestia nodded in appreciation. "When you get all of the materials on that list, come back to Canterlot, and we'll see if we can get you home."

"Make sure you come back and visit us sometime!" Luna yelled.

"Will do." I assured her.

I hopped inside the carriage and attempted to get a little more sleep on the way back. It was a clear day, but there was an inch or two of snow on the ground leftover from the previous nights.

I woke up as we touched down in Ponyville. I stepped outside the carriage and looked around. There wasn't as much snow, since Ponyville is at a lower elevation than Canterlot, and whatever had fallen must have begun to melt already.

I debated on using my necklace to attempt a "lightning step" over to the library, but I reminded myself that my legs still hadn't recovered from the stress I had put on them in Canterlot. I walked over to the library and knocked on the door, and Twilight opened the door.

"You're back! How was the Princess?"

I smiled. "_Princesses. _And they were just fine."

She looked amazed. "You met_ both_ of them? I've hardly seen Princess Luna myself, much less talk to her."

"It was sort of an accident that I met Princess Luna. Actually, I met her first, and then Princess Celestia."

"That's incredible…so did Princess Celestia find a way to get you back home?"

I completely forgot about the paper Celestia had given me. "That's right!" I reached into the inner pocket in my cloak and pulled out her notes. "She told me that if I could get all of the items on this list, she might be able to send me back. I haven't even looked at the list in detail yet. She also told me that you would know what most of this stuff is."

Twilight floated the note through the air and looked at its contents. "Let's see…generic magic stuff, generic magic stuff, liquid rainbow, dragon scales, generic magic stuff…ah." She frowned.

"What is it?"

"That's going to be a bit of a problem…" she said slowly "It calls for Everclear diamonds."

"Let me guess, those are diamonds only found in the Everfree forest?"

"Well, they can come from anywhere, but the vast majority of them have been found in the Everfree forest. But the last time somepony found one was years ago…"

I felt at my chest, and pulled the necklace out into the open. Its soft glow spread galaxies and swirls of light around the walls of the library.

Twilight could only stare. "Where did you get _that!_"

To further the effect, I lifted my hand and floated the piece of paper back over to my hand.

"Wait, how did you do that? I thought humans couldn't use magic!"

"Princess Celestia and Princess Luna helped me create this necklace. It's an Everclear diamond with the princess' magic inside. It allows me to use spells, but only when I'm wearing it on me."

She looked impressed. "You are _so_ lucky."

I laughed at her little comment. "You should have seen me escape the guards at Canterlot. Now _that _was lucky."

"You _WHAT-_"

"On second thought, ignore that last comment."

"I won't even ask." She turned around and walked back upstairs. "I'm glad you're back though."

"Me too."

I took a short trip over to Rarity's boutique, where she was already busy with a customer.

When I walked through the door, the bell rung, and she called out from a different room: "I'll be right out dear, just give me a couple moments."

When she came out, she brought with her a mare with a beautiful dress, and I watched her strut out the door.

"Joshua! You're back! And what have you done to that cloak I gave you! You look like you've invaded a castle!"

"If only you knew…" I smiled at her. "Rarity, I was wondering if you could teach me a spell."

She dropped the sewing needle she had been working with. "A spell? Twilight should be the one to go to for that sort of thing. Besides, you can't use magic, right?"

"Usually I would agree with you, but I need a specific spell to find gems underground. More specifically-" I pulled out my necklace "-I need to find these."

Her eyes lit up like I had never seen before. "That's GORGEOUS! Where did you get it? And why does it glow like that?"

I explained the gem's magic properties, Princess Celestia's list, and the need for some Everclear diamonds. Rarity was still captivated by the gem, so I just slid it back underneath my shirt for the time being.

"Of course I'll show you how! But you have to promise me that you'll bring some of those beauties back for me."

"We'll see. According to Twilight, nopony has found one of these in years, so the chances of having extras are pretty slim."

She thought it over. "I guess that's understandable…I might even come join you in your quest."

Over the next hour or so, Rarity hid some of her gems around the boutique and taught me how to detect when I was near one. The basic principle was using the magic to feel the sharpness and density of materials around me, and trying to recognize which objects were gems and which weren't. It was a fairly simple trick to learn after some practice; the gem's presence seemed colder and heavier than other objects.

"You caught onto that pretty fast! Maybe even as fast as Twilight…you should give yourself a pat on the back for that one!" Rarity beamed. "By the way, could you leave the cloak here with me? I want to try something."

I wasn't quite sure what she was going to do with it, and I was kind of attached to it now. "I guess so…"

I hadn't actually eaten lunch yet, so after getting some final magic tips from Rarity, I dropped by Sugarcube Corner and picked up a cupcake. Pinkie Pie was ecstatic to see me.

"You're back! Did you have fun in Canterlot?"

"Yes, yes I did. It was probably the craziest couple days of my life. Then again, this whole week has been pretty crazy…" my thoughts wandered back to the freefall. I got butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it.

"You bet! Equestria is always crazy! Crazy FUN!"

With that she bounded off to create fun/chaos elsewhere. I felt the area where I had initially hit the tree branch. It had healed up nicely, and for all intents and purposes was back to normal.

After lunch I took a walk to Sweet Apple Acres outside of Ponyville. There were stallions out bucking apples, and Applejack was watching the Cutie Mark Crusaders.

Sweetie Bell was the first to notice me. "Look! It's Josh!"

They all dashed over to give me a hug, and as soon as they came, they ran off again with some other brilliant plan of how they were going to get their cutie mark.

"Hey there partner! Long time no see! How was your trip?"

"Pretty good. I met the Princesses, I stayed in the royal palace, all in all I'd say I had a great time." I turned and looked at the trio of fillies dashing running off to who knows where. "Is that all they do in their spare time?"

Applejack laughed. "With all of those crazy ideas they keep tryin', they don't have any free time left!"

I hung around and talked Big Mac (with some funny interruptions from Granny Smith), and he talked about their early harvest and the dangers of the snow.

After a quick dinner and some apple cider, I headed on over to Fluttershy's house, where she was out trimming some flowers. She was completely unaware of my presence, even when I got right next to her.

I put my arm over her shoulder and she screamed. She jumped straight up into the air, almost knocking me off my feet.

"Don't do that to me!" she yelled. Then she finally realized who I was. "Josh! You're back!"

She gave me a quick hug, and then invited me inside to have some tea. I'm not a big tea drinker, but there's just no way you can refuse a request from Fluttershy.

"I have to thank you for the flower, it came in handy." (It was now long gone since the Canterlot adventure).

"Um…your welcome? What exactly did it do?"

"I needed a way to prove that I had been from Ponyville, and whatever the flower was that you put in my hair only grows around here. It was proof enough for Princess Luna."

"You met Princess Luna? Was she scary? She's awfully loud…" Fluttershy trailed off.

"Actually, I helped her to lose the incredibly loud voice, and she wasn't that scary at all." I recounted all of the events that transpired over the last couple days, and Fluttershy hung on every word.

"That sounds nice actually…" she said with a smile. "Could you…do whatever it is that you did the first time you were here? With my hair? I liked that…" she caught herself. "I'm sorry, that sounded really weird…"

I sighed. "You know, I've done that for virtually every pony that I've stayed with? I'm used to it by now."

She jumped onto her bed upstairs, and I stroked her mane until she fell asleep. Under normal circumstances, there would be no way in the world I would have done something like that. But these weren't exactly normal circumstances, and if she really liked it that much I wouldn't mind doing it for her.

"_Funny…it feels like I'm an older brother to these ponies. Tucking them into bed at night, helping them do whatever it is they need done around their house…"_ I shook the thought out of my head, and my old rational mindset kicked in. "_You MUST be sleep deprived. Back on Earth you would have completely ignored the idea that you were like an older brother to a pony."_

No matter how much my rational, alternate self tried to fight the idea, I couldn't shake it. "_Face it. You're friends with ponies, pegasi, and unicorns…Okay, that sounded weird. This had better not show up on the web somewhere."_ I quickly put that thought out of my head and checked on Fluttershy one last time.

She looked a bit cold, so put a blanket over her, and then blew out the candle in her room. I really wish I could have gotten a picture of her curled up under that blanket, I'm sure it would have won a photo contest (if not every photo contest).

I was actually a bit cold myself, so I went downstairs, started a fire, and slept near the fireplace. I laughed to myself. _"Hehehe…how ridiculous. My "Journey in Equestria" story showing up on the web somewhere…" _And I dropped off to sleep.

Author's Notes:

How ironic. ;)


	13. Chapter 11: Time: Sped up

2nd to last chapter guys, thanks for all of the subscriptions and favorites. (Keep the subscribing, I'll make a note about those after the last chapter.)

Chapter 11: Time: Sped up

The next couple days were fairly normal (as normal as you can get in Ponyville).

Lotus and Aloe (the spa twins) were now used to seeing me come in with Rarity and Fluttershy (although I was normally on my own off to the side, only interjecting comments when really necessary). I even got my hair cut by Alex (or Hairspray as some know her), and that was a pretty entertaining experience.

I made it part of my daily routine to go check in with Twilight and see what else it was I had to gather to open the dimensional gate. Actually, most of my spare time was spent either out in the forests/hills finding whatever it was that was on the list, or I was inside with Twilight creating the chemical/formula that was required for later on.

On the third day back from Canterlot, I had most of the items checked off of the list.

Twilight reviewed the contents: "That's just about everything. All that's left is Everclear diamonds…and dragon scales."

"_Well that's going to be fun…not."_

I turned to Twilight. "I'm going to go head out and search for the Everclear diamonds."

"I'll join you! It'll be fun!"

In all reality, I was hoping to have a rematch with that dragon that nearly burned me alive. I had picked up a couple more magic spells that I was itching to use. But there was no way I was going to try them with Twilight and the others around.

"Well, if you're going to come, you might as well let Rarity and the others know. Some of them wanted to join me also. We might as well make it a group trip. I'm going to head out right now though."

"Alright, we'll meet up at the old temple where we first used the Elements of Harmony."

"That sounds good to me."

I walked out the door, and towards the Everfree forest. Rarity caught me along the way: "Josh! Here's your cloak back. I patched it up and added some extra protection for you."

"Thanks Rarity, I owe you once again." I slid on the cloak, put the hood up, and continued towards the Everfree forest without missing a beat.

It was a long walk, and the whole time I was thinking about strategies to use against the dragon, should I ever meet him again. "_Well, in the fairy tales it's always been said the belly is the weakest…but does that actually hold true here?"_

After a good twenty minutes or so I reached the canyon. The piece of land across from me was small; almost like an island in the sky. "_Where are you…come out and we'll see how 'invincible' you really are…"_

After a solid ten minutes of scanning the terrain, I heard the ominous beat of wings. Really _large_ wings. "_And so it begins…"_

The huge beast landed thirty feet away or so and let out a deafening roar, accompanied with flames that it shot into the sky.

I wasted no time in getting the first attack in. With a movement quicker than sound, I flashed out of sight, leaving only the hiss of scorched air behind me. I hit the dragon solidly in the neck, causing him to bend over to the side. Whether it was effective or not didn't really bother me, I just wanted to see how he would react to an enemy that got too close.

The force of the blow stunned him, and he clawed wildly at the air. I stopped in front of him, back where I started. With a sharp inhale, he blew a fireball that easily would have engulfed a small house. I flashed right in front of him, hitting him squarely in the midsection. It did nothing. Not even a small crack appeared in his thick scales.

"_There's one myth debunked…"_

I flashed back out of range of his claws. He was far too heavy to lift, and he was too strong to try manipulating.

Everything I tried was simply ineffective against his scales. "_This is more challenging than I thought it would be…he can't keep up with my movements anymore, but if I can't do anything to him, he's bound to hit me with a random shot one of these times." _Sure enough, the dragon began to shoot random bursts of flames at different directions in an attempt to catch me mid flight.

This fast paced hit-and-retreat tactic was continued for another five minutes or so, until I began to feel slight fatigue in my legs. "_This is bad…I won't be able to hold out another five minutes._" I tried once more, this time doubling the speed of the attack. I kicked solidly at his armor, and put the tiniest crack in one of the plates. "_So it's not entirely invincible…"_ My legs were definitely hurting now.

"Joooosh!" It was Twilight.

"_Oh great…"_ I thought to myself. "Twilight! Stay clear of this area! Let me handle it!"

"It's fine, I've got the whole gang here! Besides, Fluttershy has dealt with a dragon before, she can handle it."

"No, wait-"

Fluttershy was already ahead of the group and she began to yell at the dragon.

"_Yelling at a dragon who's already upset…this isn't going to end well."_

"How dare you!"

The dragon turned and began to inhale.

"FLUTTERSHY! RUN!"

I could tell that she hadn't heard me. The dragon began to blow a stream of flames at her, and time seemed to slow down. I flashed over to Fluttershy, and slowed down to pick her up. A sensation of pain lanced through my legs. "_My legs! I forgot about that! I'm not going to be able to recover in time-"_

I turned my head. The fireball was already upon us. "_It's no good! I can't pick her up and flash away with her weight added to mine…" _I turned my head away from the oncoming sea of flames and hid Fluttershy underneath my cloak.

The blast of heat engulfed us entirely, and as soon as it started, it had stopped. I was fully expecting to be toasted alive there, but I was able to open my eyes. Everything around us had been completely decimated. "_Why wasn't I…the cloak! That's what Rarity meant my 'added protection'!"_

As for poor Fluttershy, she practically had a heart attack.

I turned around started running towards dragon, to try and settle it as quickly as possible. Suddenly, a voice spoke up behind.

"Wait."

Fluttershy flew over me, and she had this look on her face. "_Oh no…This is 'the look'."_ She floated over to the dragon and gave her a piece of her mind, making sure that he caught every word of it. I just stopped and stared. _"Alright, I guess she can handle the dragon on her own."_ I must admit that it was pretty impressive to see, almost scary, in fact.

After Fluttershy "asked" for some dragon scales (which was more like "demanding"), we joined back up with the group to do some gem hunting.

Applejack was pretty amazed by the whole process. "Gee wiz, that was some pretty amazin' stuff there Fluttershy!"

I just shook my head. "I don't know how you do it."

"I'm not really sure either…" she said with an awkward smile.

We then went to work searching for the Everclear diamonds. It took us the rest of the day just to find six of them, (we only needed five, but I promised Rarity that I would get at least one for her).

By the time we were done, the sun was setting over the far mountains. "I say we call it a day."

Rainbow Dash looked relieved. "I agree, we've been out here for hours!"

Twilight looked over at me. "Hey Josh, you should come join us for the night! We're having a sleepover at the library."

I smiled at her. "I'd be glad to."

It was quite the party; I'll admit that. The food was provided by Spike, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie; the decorations were created by Rarity and Fluttershy, and the games were invented by Rainbow Dash and Twilight.

We must have been up well past midnight playing different games (most of which I had never heard of), and Twilight was constantly checking her books for all of the things that we were "supposed" to be doing at a sleepover.

I had to pull her aside. "Twilight, sleepovers are for _fun_. You're taking this way too seriously. Just wing it! I'm sure that we'll be up into the early hours of the morning."

"Really? I thought we should at least get a couple of these things done-"

"Twilight. You're too goal oriented. Just let it go for this evening."

She smiled at me. "I'll give it a try."

I managed to sneak to the upstairs and pack my bag for the next morning: my clothes, necklace, and the materials that Princess Celestia needed for the spell.

Rainbow Dash caught me though. "What are you doing up here? You should be downstairs hanging out with us!"

"I'm just preparing for tomorrow." I smiled at her. "That's all." I had a slightly depressing thought, but the reality of it hadn't quite settled in yet. _"This is going to be my last night here in Equestria…I might as well make it as enjoyable as possible."_

After overloading on sugar and carbohydrates, Twilight read us a "scary" story (that was pretty average to me, but I didn't want to ruin it for her, so I acted scared anyways). We finally settled down and blew out the lights at 1:00 or 2: in the morning. I was almost asleep when I heard Rainbow Dash whisper something. "_Psst…hey Josh?"_

Rarity was apparently still up as well. "_Dash! Why are you still up?"_

"_What are you still doing up Rarity?"_ Dash responded.

"_Well…I was hoping that Josh might still be up…"_

"Me too!" Pinkie Pie joined in.

Actually, all of them were still up. "Alright, alright, I know what you're all going to ask." I got up and tucked each one of them in, including Spike. "_They remind me of when I used to tuck in my little sister at night…" _I thought to myself.

Finally, I was able to get some shut eye, at least for a couple hours.

Author's notes:

Slightly shorter than the other chapters (it was also sort of a rush job), and the next one will probably be the last. It's been a blast so far!

As for the sleepover, I wanted one final group get together so that no one pony would get all of the attention.


	14. Chapter 12: Goodbye

Chapter 12: Goodbye

I woke had to wake up the gang early to say my goodbyes.

I woke them up, gathered them upstairs, and explained how it was going to work. "Well, it was really incredible meeting all of you, but today I have to head back home."

"You can't stay any longer?..." There was a note of sadness in Pinkie Pie's voice

"Not when I know that there are others who are probably worried about what happened to me."

"We're going to Canterlot with you." Twilight interjected.

"You what?"

"We're going with you! We figured that we would at least see you off, so we decided last night that we would join you on your way to Canterlot." She smiled.

"Thanks you guys…that will make the trip a little easier."

We ate a quick breakfast (I made them pancakes one last time), and then we piled onto a massive eight seat carriage, and set off for Canterlot.

We talked about all of the things that had happened, and all of the discoveries that we had made along the way.

"Honestly…I don't want to leave. It's so nice here, compared to the crazy place that I live in…"

Everyone was silent for the longest time, and then Spike saw Canterlot out the window. "Look guys, we're here!"

That just made it worse knowing I was getting closer to leaving Equestria. 

The royal guards led us into the Palace, and we went straight to the throne room.

"Princess Celestia!" Twilight yelled.

"My faithful student Twilight! And all of her friends! What are you all doing here in Canterlot?"

I walked in between them, and nodded at Celestia. "Princess, I have everything on the list."

She nodded back and called for Luna.

Luna raced back down the steps, and stopped short when she saw me. "Joshy! You're back!" She ran up and gave me a hug.

"Yes…don't get used to it."

"What do you mean by that?"

I looked down at the floor. "…I'm leaving to go back home today." I pulled out the contents of my bag and handed them to Celestia.

Celestia floated them over by her side. "I'll go set it up later; you have some time before it will be ready."

We all sat down and talked some more about the things that had happened over the week. After making sure that Celestia was out of earshot, Luna shared her hair dye trick to the others, and they all had a good laugh.

I for one, was feeling sick to my stomach. The only day that I wanted to last forever, went faster than I had hoped. One moment I was eating yet another sugar laden lunch, and in the next moment it was practically evening. Celestia walked back in and looked over at me with a saddened look. I understood what that meant.

"We should to head out to the viewing platform now." Celestia said.

We walked outside, and I was struck with wonder. The sisters had put on quite a display. The sun was setting on the far side of Equestria, creating a fiery pink and yellow display on the clouds in the distance. At the same time, shooting stars were crossing a wave of deep blue that was crawling its way across the sky. The platform gave the best view over all of Equestria, which was a once in a lifetime experience.

Celestia focused her magic, and the five crystals embedded around the platform shone with a white light. Ever so slowly, a wall of murky deep blue spread across the platform, creating a gate that was about ten feet tall, ten feet wide, and infinitely thin.

I turned back around to face my friends. "Well guys…I guess this is goodbye. Thanks for everything."

Luna stepped forward. "Hey Josh…are you ever going to come back?"

I looked at the eight ponies that were watching me go. "I don't know to be honest. I don't even know how I got here in the first place, but if I do find a way to get back, I promise you I'll come visit."

"Hey Josh…um, stay safe." Fluttershy whispered.

"And work hard at…whatever you humans do." Applejack added.

"Learn lots!" Twilight said.

"And have lots of fun!" Pinkie Pie yelled.

"Dress well!" Rarity joined in.

"And don't you EVER stop being awesome!" Rainbow dash concluded.

They all ran over and gave me a quick group hug, and Luna even joined in. I could tell they were trying not to cry. "We're going to miss you!"

My eyes began to water, and I chuckled to myself. "_I told myself that I wouldn't cry when the time came when I had to leave, but look at me now…"_ I smiled at all of my new friends. "…I'm going to miss you guys too."

I walked over and raised my hand. When I reached out and touched the dimensional gate, the substance rippled and began to dematerialize my hand. Starting at my arm and working its way across, my body slowly shattered into glowing white particles that flowed into the mist.

Princess Luna looked over at Twilight. "Do you want to tell me what you learned about friendship this week before Joshua leaves?"

Twilight turned and looked at me, watching my body disappear. "You won't always know where your friends come from, or where they're going, but as long as you remember each other…"

I finished her sentence while trying to fight back tears. "…you'll still be friends. Don't you forget about me, I sure won't forget about you guys."

"We won't!" They promised me.

I waved goodbye, and watched them fade as my vision ceased to function. "_Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again!" _With a quick flash of light, the rest of my body dissipated all at once, floating away into the tear in space.

When I finally came to, the wind was rushing against my face. My cloak was gone, I was back in my original clothes, and I was moving pretty fast. "_Wind? I know this sensation…I'm falling again!"_ When I got out of the clouds, I emerged over an infinite sea of water, as clear as glass. I continued to pick up speed until I hit the water, and I continued my descent until the water slowed me down.

000

I woke up with a sudden jerk, gasping for breath. "_What on earth just happened!"_ I looked over at my clock. "_It's only three in the morning? That dream lasted for days though..."_

__I looked back down at the blankets with a sigh. "_So it was a dream…but I so desperately wanted it to be real! Why couldn't it have just lasted a little longer…"_

I began to feel incredibly depressed, and I felt at my neck. There was a thin chain. "_What is this..."_

I pulled it out. _"The_ _princess' diamond…"_ It cast a soft glow around my room, reflecting off of the mirror and windows. I fell back down onto the bed with a sigh of relief. "_Luna, Twilight, and all the others_…_I have a feeling I'll be seeing you again someday."_

I flipped open my laptop and began to write: _"A dark grey sky provided a steady rain that soaked ground by the time I got home. I locked my car, walked inside, and headed upstairs. I was tired, it had been a long day at work…"_

I paused for a moment, turned on my cell phone, and called a good friend of mine.

"Josh? Is that you? What are you doing calling me at three in the morning!"

I fell back into my bed and gazed into the crystal. "You're never going to believe this…"

000

Author's Notes:

Well, that concludes "In Another Land"; I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it!

Oh, and for clarification, the "_Farewell! God knows when we shall meet again!"_ line was first said by the great poet William Shakespeare, not me. Don't go quoting me on that one. I'll officially finish this up in the next chapter (A Final Word).


	15. Return to Equestria: Chapter 1

In Another Land: Return to Equestria

It was a clear day, with only a few clouds lazily drifting about. I was in my car driving back home, reminiscing on the fun I had with Twilight, Fluttershy, and the others.

I had been hoping that at some point that I would be whisked away to visit with the ponies I had befriended. But the longer I waited, the less likely it seemed. The only thing that I had as a reminder was the jewel that I had found in the Everfree forest.

So I waited. And waited. Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months.

"_How long has it been since that day? It has to be at least three months, if not more…"_

I desperately wished to be away from all of the hectic noise and life, but I realized that I shouldn't really be wishing for that. I had my fun, and 99% of all of the people on planet earth wouldn't get to experience the joy that I went through. "_Funny, I go through the most exciting experience of my life, but I can't tell anyone about it."_

I thought back to that evening when I returned. I had called up one of my best friends, but I was caught up in the moment. I couldn't actually get myself to say it.

"_You're never going to believe this! I traveled to…" The words were stuck in my throat._

"_What? You went where?"_

"_I…I took the trip of a lifetime. I'll leave it at that. I can't say any more about it, you wouldn't believe me."_

"_Look dude, I've known you for ages. I'm pretty sure that I trust you."_

"_Then trust me when I say that you wouldn't be able to imagine it. You would think me insane or something if I could actually tell you. Sorry I woke you up so early, I was just hyper and overly excited."_

I turned the stereo off and parked in the driveway. I was at an angle, but hey, who cares. "_Meh, Close enough."_

After dropping my things in the front hall, I proceeded to warm up tacos and sit down in front of the TV. The nightly news was on, but it was mostly boring stuff that I didn't want to hear. The only thing that I watched the news for was the weather. The reporters were just about to begin the weather section when the TV started going spastic. White noise fuzzed up the screen until it was a solid black and white image.

"Aw come on. The only thing I want to see and then this happens…"

I turned on my laptop instead, and proceeded to look for the local news station to see what they said about the weather. But the internet was down also. To top things off, a complete blackout dowsed all of the lights in the house, creating a dark and shadowy atmosphere.

"_What the…"_

There was a glow emanating from underneath my shirt. I pulled my necklace out and inspected it. Light images of stars and galaxies floated around the room. "_What is happening to this thing?"_

The first thing that came to my head was my bedroom, but falling down on my bed didn't do anything (unlike last time), so I continued to wander through the house. I systematically cleared every room in the house, until I was sure that I hadn't missed anything.

"_Well that's odd. Maybe it's just a coincidence."_

I proceeded to head into the bathroom to brush my teeth and wash my face. In the middle of soaping up a washcloth, I saw a light underneath the door.

"_Alright, who's there…"_

I cautiously slid the door open, and found myself in the middle of a garden, bathed in sunlight. I could only laugh to myself. "_I know this place!"_

There were deep red roses, white lilies, and other such flowers (I'm pretty sure that my mom would know what they are, but I had no idea. Then again, I didn't really care all that much.) I turned around to close the door, but no such door existed. It was just an empty pathway, as if nothing had ever been there.

"_I can't believe I'm actually back here!_ _If I'm correct, this is Rarity's flower garden, somewhere in the vicinity of the Boutique."_

Sure enough, my hunch was correct. Not a hundred feet away there was a white building with some colorful decorations that someone, or somepony, had placed there. I wandered over to the window and peeked inside. Nobody was around.

I poked my head inside. "_She's changed the layout of the Boutique somewhat since I was last here."_ Nobody was in the first room either, so I proceeded to the quilting room. Upon looking around, I noticed a slightly depressed pony lying on the couch, her head hung pretty low. It was Rarity, and she was in one of her "moods" where she talked to herself constantly.

"Ugh! This. Is. So. Boring! Nobody has even visited the shop in days, let alone buy a dress or something. Not to mention the fact that I can't think of anything new for my dresses. This is going to be a terrible month if I can't come up with anything new…"

I walked over to the couch where she was, and patted her on the back. "I'm sure you'll think of something. You managed to be pretty creative when I was last here."

She let out a slight yell and jumped up out of her seat. "WHO DARES TO-" She was taken back when she turned to look at me. "…Josh? You're BACK!" She ran back over to the couch and sat down where I had found her.

"Yes I am! I'm not really sure how, but I don't really care. I'm just happy to be here."

"How have you been!"

"I've been okay I guess, nothing that I couldn't handle." I turned and smiled at her. "But I sure am glad to be back."

Rarity looked up at me expectantly. I began to stroke her silky mane, and she settled down a little. I smiled at her. "Just as smooth as I remembered it."

She just curled up and enjoyed the massage, and I relaxed next to her afternoon sun.

/

Author's notes:

Hello bronies! We're baaaaaaack!

As of now I'm just winging it, and I have no real idea what's going to happen, but that's actually how I did most of the last story (writing the next thing that I'd do if I were really there, without really thinking ahead in the story to terribly much).

The next chapter will either appear tomorrow evening, or possibly Wednesday evening (since that's my next free evening I have.) If I can't do that, then it will be sometime next weekend. I'll make a concerted effort to give you something before then though.


	16. RTE Chapter 2: Back to Ponyville

Chapter 2: Back to Ponyville

"Hey Rarity…"

She merely replied with a muffled "Mmph."

"…Is any of the others around? I figured I should check up on them since I'm here."

She yawned and stretched out on the couch. "Yes, of course they're here."

"Then I think I'm going to go and pay them a surprise visit."

She looked up with a concerned face. "Do you remember how to Ponyville from here?"

"Sure thing. It shouldn't be too terribly difficult."

Rarity settled back down. "Good, then I'm going to stay here a while and catch up on my beauty sleep for another hour or two. I'll catch up with you later."

I started for the door when Rarity piped up again. "Hey Josh? I'm glad you're back."

I smiled at the white mare resting on the couch. "You and me both."

You'd think that it would be an easy task to get back to Ponyville. The clock tower was visible for a pretty good distance. It stood over the trees and rang on the hour, so it was a good indicator of where you were in relation to Ponyville, so most ponies were just fine. But it wasn't that simple for me.

Ponyville has a fairly large waterway that travels near its border, but the water was unusually high for this time of year, submerging most of the usual wooden bridges. I had to wander my way around the town until I came to a larger arched bridge that still had a couple feet of clearance underneath.

I started crossing the bridge, and then stopped midway to stare at the animals swimming around. There were a couple fish swimming here and there, and there was a dark patch that was moving towards the bridge in the distance. It didn't quite register until a moment later. I turned my attention to a snow white unicorn with a light pink mane passing behind me, when the whole bridge suddenly rocked towards the side.

I looked back to see that the dark "something" under the water that had collided with one of the bridge struts, knocking it completely out of place. "_I've heard of this before. Dense trees will sometimes travel underwater and wind up in places where no one expects. It's because they're heavy enough that they sink below the surface, but they're buoyant enough that they don't fall completely to the river floor. "_

_You never know it's coming unless you know what to look for."_

I turned to tell the unicorn behind me to get off of the bridge, but it was too late. With a hollow cracking noise, the pillars gave way and the bridge collapsed underneath our feet.

Now, I wasn't exactly an Olympian when it came to swimming, but I wasn't terrible at it either, so I managed to keep my head above water for most of the time. The turbulent river must have carried us a few hundred feet before I could grab onto the mare's side, and then I worked my way to the bank one stroke at a time.

After I managed to pull her onto the shore, I flopped onto the beach and let myself rest.

"Hey, you alright over there?"

The white and pink mare coughed up a little water, and then replied with a quiet "Yeah, I'm fine, but who are you?"

"My name is Joshua, what's yours?" I replied as I stood up.

"Sugarberry, but most people just call me Berry."

"Well, nice to meet you. Perhaps we could have had a better setting, but what's done is done. I suppose I'm not going to be returning to Ponyville as soon as I was expecting…"

She shook some water off of herself. "I guess not. You alright?"

I smiled at her. "Just wet, that's all."

A cracked, low voice resounded from behind us. "Well well, I have guests! That's not something you see every day."

I turned around to see an old stallion wearing a dark tattered hat.

"Grampa!" Berry yelled.

"Look who it is!" He was abruptly smothered with affection from the young mare. "How have you been?"

She shot him a funny glare. "Look at me. I've been through the river. How do think I've been?"

They had a staring contest for the longest time, and eventually the old stallion broke up laughing, with Berry following suit.

I cut in midway. "So you must be Mr. Hayseed. How do you know him Berry?"

"Are you kidding?" She said in between giggles. "He does all sorts of stuff for the ponies in Ponyville. He gives free hay cart rides, brings in some apple cider every once and a while, and lets the young fillies and colts play on his farm."

Old Hayseed narrowed his eyes. "Oh my…you're not from around these parts, are you?" He smiled nonchalantly and began walking away.

I could tell that he knew more than he was letting on. "Hold it. How did you know that?"

He continued to speak without facing me. "I have my ways young man." He looked back at me. "Or should I say, young _human._"

Berry could tell that something was up, but she wasn't connecting the dots. I on the other hand, didn't have all the dots to connect. I walked up beside Grampa Hayseed and whispered in his ear.

"_How did you know that I was a human? There are only so many possibilities, and none of them seem very likely."_

He continued to smile and walk onward. "You're not the first human I've seen around these parts."

I was completely blown away. "Wait wait wait, hold it. Back up the conversation for a moment. There were other humans here before me?"

"There was another _human. _Singular. I didn't know him very well, and he didn't befriend very many ponies, but he took a liking to me and explained what to do in case I saw another human after him. He was confident that another human entering Equestria was impossible, and that the odds of it happening again were astronomical. Obviously the impossible has happened."

"What was his name?"

"Well shoot…" he gave me a sheepish smile. "I can't say that I quite remember."

When we reached Hayseed's farm, I sat down on the porch and pried the old stallion for more information. "Is he still here? Can you tell me anything about him at all?"

The old stallion became lost in thought. "Not really. He helped me once or twice, but he didn't say much. He seemed pretty preoccupied."

The topic of conversation drifted between multiple different subjects. We sat around and I listened to various stories that Ol' Hayseed had collected over the years. My grandfather used to tell such stories, and it made me feel a little closer to home.

He told me about the trouble that he would cause back when he was a colt, the different celebrity ponies that he knew before they were famous, and the wonderful grandponies that he poured his heart and soul out for.

By the time our clothes were semi dry, it was around 11:30, so we had a light lunch with Grampa Hayseed, consisting of apples, oranges, and something that reminded me of cornbread.

"Thanks for the hospitality." I turned to Berry, who was playing on a stack of hay bales. "We should try heading to Ponyville; it's already past noon."

"I suppose you're right. Do you mind if I join you?"

"The more the merrier! I would love some company on the way there."

We waved goodbye to the old timer, and then walked for a half an hour or so until we reached Ponyville. I had to explain my unique (or not so unique) scenario to Berry, who was curious as to what exactly a "human" was.

When we finally arrived, I couldn't remember the location of the library, so I had to ask. Sugarberry was happy to help.

"Sure thing!" and with that she trotted off towards the center of town.

After saying my goodbye to the snowy unicorn, I walked into the library, where I found Twilight enveloped in a good book. She didn't even look up when the bells rang.

"Something I can help you with?"

I tried to keep from laughing. "Ahem, um, actually, there is. I'd like to check out a book." I said in an obviously fake voice.

She glanced up from the book at the slightly familiar voice. "Josh?" She smiled, closed up the book and ran over to meet me. "What are you doing here?"

I broke down laughing and rubbed her back. "I'm not really sure, but I'm glad to be here. How have you been?"

"Pretty good!" She looked at all of the reading material she had scattered around on the floor. "Well, other than a lack of clean up work."

We talked about the different things that we had done over the months that had passed, and I had the largest grin on my face the whole time. "_I really, really have missed this place."_

After a sugar filled dinner that only Equestria could provide, I tucked Twilight into her bed (and later Spike, who had been in an adjacent room), and drifted off to sleep on the couch downstairs.

/

Author's Notes:

Sorry it took so long to get this one up guys!

I had a hard time getting the hang of this chapter. I just couldn't seem to make it flow, so this is probably my 3rd or 4th time redoing it.


	17. RTE Chapter 3: Reunited Once Again

Chapter 3: Reunited Once Again

I woke up to the sound of papers being shuffled and flipped around.

I rolled over and looked up towards the loft. "Twilight…what are you doing?"

"Hmm? Oh I'm just writing my weekly report to the Princess."

"This early in the morning?"

"Yeah, I couldn't fall back asleep, so I figured I might as well do something productive.

She returned to her letter, and I picked up a couple of the books and scanned through their contents. I took a slight interest one of the books, titled "A Guide to the Northern Heavens". It had a detailed map of the night sky, and the origins of the star's names; none of them seemed to match Earth's constellations.

My reading was abruptly interrupted by one very hyper active pink pony who flew through the door at a breakneck pace. "It's JOSH! He's BACK!"

"_Oh boy, the party is about to begin."_

As Pinkie Pie was throwing decorations around the room, Rainbow Dash and Rarity walked in, and Rarity was looking pretty upset.

"Josh! I'm SO sorry I couldn't make it here yesterday evening, the bridge was out. Speaking of which, how did you get over here?"

I gave her a half hearted smile. "I was on that bridge when it collapsed. It wasn't exactly a fun experience."

Rainbow Dash floated over to where I was. "I'm just glad that you're okay! What have you been up to? It's been forever since we've seen you!"

I talked to them over breakfast about my daily life, and any major changes that had happened since my first visit, and they hung on every word. "You know, we should just take a trip to the spa and discuss everything there. I haven't been to a spa since I left Equestria months ago."

Everyone was pretty pleased with the idea, and Pinkie Pie said that she would go get Applejack, and Rainbow Dash offered to go get Fluttershy. I decided to join Pinkie on her quest to find Applejack, and it turned out to be a virtually one way conversation the whole time. Normally I would be annoyed by it, but I had been missing Pinkie's antics, and they came as a comedic relief to my ears.

After fifteen minutes of walking or so, we came to Sweet Apple Acres, where Big Mac was sitting on the porch with Granny Smith.

"Well, look at who's here!" Bic Mac grinned. "Hey Applejack, some friends are here to see ya'!"

Applejack walked out of the barn, with a confused look on her face. "Why is somepony comin' around this early in the mornin' to see…Josh!"

She sauntered over to where I was, and then playfully punched me in the shoulder. "It's good to see that you've survived enough of your weird world to come back and see us!"

"That's definitely a good thing. We're actually going to head to the spa to catch up on life, and we were wondering if you would want to join us."

Applejack nervously looked over at her older brother. "Well-"

"Go on." Big Mac stated.

AJ's ears perked up. "Really?"

"Of course. You've earned some time off."

"I guess I'm a comin' with ya'll!"

We (meaning Pinkie) talked the whole way down to the spa, and when we finally arrived we were greeted by the two twins, Lotus and Aloe.

"Welcome back you guys! It's been a while!"

"It certainly has." I smiled at them. "How have you been?"

They told us that they had been doing wonderful, especially since they had done renovation to the spa.

Their building had been expanded upon since I had been there last, with new rooms on the side for larger groups, and a small upstairs sauna. We decided as that we'd prefer one larger pool instead of a few individual pools, so we told the twins that we would like one of the new rooms, and they led us over to the entry way.

"Right through here." Aloe waved her hoof at the door. "I'll set some towels in here for when you're done." Aloe said.

"Thanks parter!" Applejack smiled back.

The six ponies slid into the hot water with relative ease, and I decided to sit alongside the pool and talk instead.

"Why aren't you getting in the pool?" Twilight inquired.

"I'm not really one for Jacuzzis and stuff like that." I'm just fine up here.

Rainbow Dash, who was off to my left, stood up, "Come on you big chicken!" She gave me a firm whack on the back and I fell into the water face first, right into Twilight and Rarity's laps.

"Ouch, okay, this is reaaally hot water… Dash, you could really hurt someone that way if you're not careful." I wiped the water from my eyes, and looked up to see that I was a waaaaaay too close to Twilight and Rarity for comfort. I slid back in the water over to the side of the pool, my face a little red.

"Hehe, sorry about that." I shot a look over at Rainbow, who was trying desperately to stifle a laugh. I turned my attention back on the group in general. "Alright, I'm in the water now. Happy?"

There was a couple head nods, and I just settled in and let the six of them talk amongst themselves. Most of the conversation had no bearing on me whatsoever, and it was about subjects that I didn't understand or ponies that I hadn't met. I will say that it was handy for determining the character traits of ponies so that if I did meet them one day, then I would have some sort of idea what they were like.

The conversation was pretty light hearted, and the topics were the usual stuff you would think to hear at a spa.

During the conversation, Rainbow Dash scooted over closer to me, and whispered something in my ear. "Sorry…about earlier." She looked up at me with a cheesy grin. "I didn't mean to embarrass you or anything, I just wanted you to join us."

"It's fine." I smiled at her and ran my hand through her wild mane to try and smooth it out. She seemed to enjoy it, and I kept on doing it as long as she liked.

Lotus came in, but stopped and smiled at us when she saw me straightening out Dash's hair. It was apparent from the look in her eyes that she was remembering something that had happened in the past, but I wasn't quite sure what it could be.

A couple hours, the girls decided to have their hair done, so I sat out in the lobby and waited.

Lotus walked over to me and poked me on the shoulder. "Anything you need?" She grinned and added. "…and that was really sweet of you to fix her mane like that."

I rested my arms behind me. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well…" she began to turn the slightest shade of red. "There was another pony, er, person like you, who was able to interact with ponies perfectly. He could calm any one of us down in a matter of minutes, and he was the absolute best when it came to massages. He even gave my sister and I a massage one time." She giggled to herself. "I'm sorry, but I just had to watch because it reminded me of him."

I raised an eyebrow but didn't ask any questions about the other "person" she was talking about.

A little while later the group came back out from their hair treatments. I didn't notice any difference (but then again, most guys really don't notice those kinds of things).

"Well, I need to get back and feed the animals." Fluttershy said.

"Yup, Big Mac's probably wonderin' what happened to me." Applejack added.

We all stopped for a treat nearby at a local shop, and then went our separate ways for the remainder of the day.

I was stuck trying to decide which pony I should accompany. Luckily for me, finding an offer wasn't too terribly difficult.

"Hey Josh!" Pinkie Pie was tugging at my side. "If you don't have a place to stay, you can come hang out with me!"

I smiled at her enthusiasm. "That sounds good to me, as long as we don't stay up _too _late."

She whispered in my ear. "_Besides, you can help me_ _plan my next party!"_

"Ooh, that sounds fun. What is it for?"

"_Not so loud!"_ she hissed. "_I'll tell you when we get back to Sugarcube Corner!"_

I nodded my head and we said a hasty goodbye.

I realized it before, but now that I was actually walking alongside her, I couldn't help but notice that Pinkie Pie moves fast. _Really_ fast. Despite the appearances though, she has a good sense of common courtesy, and slowed down to my walking speed for the trip back to Sugarcube Corner. It looked slightly out of place, but I was glad that she didn't just leave me in the dust.

"Alright Pinkie, now that we're away from the others, what is this 'party' that you mentioned?"

"It's for tomorrow!" she exclaimed.

I gave her a blank look.

"Oh, right, you wouldn't know what tomorrow is. Tomorrow is Rarity's birthday!"

"Really?"

"Mhmm! And I'm going to make it SUPER special!" She yelled with glee.

"What exactly do you have planned?"

"You see, since Rarity is working tomorrow, we're going to host the party later in the evening. Mr. and Mrs. Cake are already working on the food, I just have to figure out the rest of it!"

We walked through the doors of Sugarcube Corner, where Mr. Cake was busy making cakes (what did you expect?).

He looked surprised to see me. "Hey, if it isn't Josh! Long time no see!"

"It has been a while, hasn't it?"

"What have you been up to all these months?"

"Work, I guess. Nothing really interesting."

Pinkie Pie cut in. "Hey, do you mind if Josh stays and helps plan Rarity's birthday party with me?"

"I don't see why not…"

Pinkie Pie bolted upstairs and to her room and into her walk-in closet full of random party assortments. Quite frankly, I don't think I have ever seen that much party content in one place. Even superstores would have a hard time beating Pinkie Pie.

"Pinkie…where did you get all this stuff?"

"Oh, I paid for it. Working here gets me the money I need so I can throw huge parties, and those make my friends happy!"

"Right, so, um, what exactly are we doing here?"

"We need to figure out things to do that Rarity would enjoy. She seems a little high strung, so I need to be SURE that it's PERFECT." Pinkie Pie stated.

We spent the next couple hours going through the different confetti colors, frosting flavors, and game ideas. Among them were "Pin the Tail on the Pony" and a board game that resembled Monopoly (apparently it takes forever to finish as well).

"So Pinkie, what do you think Rarity would like as a gift?"

"She likes gems!"

I rolled my eyes. "_Well, that would be great if I knew where gems were." _I stared off into space. "_Wait a moment…if I remember right, there was a stash of gems in the mountain where the dragon slept. I wonder if they're still intact?"_

I continued to think about it up until the time where Pinkie Pie had to go to sleep. I tucked her in, shut the door, and walked downstairs. "_It's decided. I'll take a trip to the mountain tomorrow and see what I can find. Of course, there's no guarantee that I'll find anything, but even still…"_

I drifted off to sleep on a couch, all the while planning the next day's activities.

/

Author's Notes:

This is the first REAL chapter to be overhauled.

So, how do you guys like it? Is it better/worse than before?


	18. RTE Chapter 4: Rarity's Birthday

I goofed up guys :P

I just now realized that it was Rarity's birthday in one of the most recent TV episodes. (For some reason I thought it was somepony else.)

I'll see if I can take it a different direction than normal.

Chapter 4: Rarity's Birthday

I woke up to the smell of fresh bread in the oven, and rolled over on the couch "_That smell reminds me of home..."_

When I wandered into the kitchen, Mrs. Cake was already at work.

"Shouldn't you get more sleep? You go to sleep late and you're up early making food! You need some time off."

She continued working while she talked. "Oh nonsense. I love this kind of thing! Besides, I don't need that much sleep." She motioned to the bread. "Do you want to try some?"

"You bet! There's no way I'd turn down food that smells this good!"

It _smelled_ wonderful, but it _tasted_ even better, especially with butter.

Eventually the scent caught the attention of Pinkie Pie, and she bounded down the stairs with party supplies in tow. "Good morning everyone!~"

I had to laugh at the flip-flopped situation. "You know, I thought for sure that you would be the first one up Pinkie, and that Mr. and Mrs. Cake would be late sleepers. I guess I was wrong."

"Well OF COURSE I slept in late! I have to make sure that I have enough energy for Rarity's birthday party!"

"Speaking of which…I know I haven't been invited to the party, but I feel like I should get her something. Wasn't there a stash of gems up at the mountain where the sleeping dragon was?"

Pinkie Pie stopped for a moment. "Yeah, there was, but I'm pretty sure that it's been cleaned out by now."

I was a little disheartened at the news. "Ah, okay…"

"_Wonderful."_ I thought to myself. "_Now what am I going to do?"_

After helping clean up the mess in Pinkie's room, we headed on over to the library to meet up with Twilight.

"Hey guys! How goes the planning?" She called from her window.

"Great!" Pinkie smiled. "I have most of the stuff right here!"

As Pinkie Pie and Twilight were moving various objects around, I couldn't help but notice that Spike was mulling over something in a remote corner of the room.

I walked over to him and poked him on the shoulder. "Spike? You okay?"

"What! Who? Me?" he yelled. "I guess I'm okay…" he trailed off.

"What's the matter?"

"Weeeellll…you know today is, um, Rarity's birthday. And I don't really have anything to get her…" he sounded nervous. "I know I don't _need_ to get her anything, but I'd sure _like _to…"

I sat down next to him and stared at the floor. "I guess we're in the same boat, aren't we?"

"What do you mean by that?"

"I kinda' feel like I should get her something, but I don't even really know what she likes."

"Gems! That's what she likes."

"I know that Spike, but isn't there anything else that she's interested in? Anything at all?"

"If it has to do with dresses, she'll probably like it, but other than that…"

We sat in silence for a while.

"I say we go out and find her something." Spike announced in a courageous tone.

"How are we going to know-"

"We won't." he stated. "We'll just have to figure it out when we get there."

I called out to Twilight and Pinkie Pie. "We'll be back in a while guys. Spike and I are going to go do some shopping."

"Shopping?" Twilight asked.

I shrugged and followed Spike out the door. "I guess so. I'm just going along for the ride."

Spike knew his way around Ponyville fairly well, so I wasn't too concerned about getting lost. The thing that _did_ concern me was his lack of judgment.

"Look at THAT!" Spike pointed to something in a display case. "Don't you think she'd like that?"

I rolled my eyes. "You know her better than I do. But do you really think that she'd ever use a bookcase like that? That looks like something Twilight could use. Besides, that's incredibly expensive."

"Yeah, but it's nice!"

"Spike. Come back to reality. The high price tag doesn't mean she'll like it."

"Oh I suppose you're right…"

We continued wandering through different shops and bazaars, and I was continually pulling Spike out of his silly delusions. "Spike? Spiiiiike… SPIKE!"

"What? Oh, right. Sorry about that."

"This is getting us nowhere fast. Are you sure you know what to get her?"

"Of course I'm sure!" Spike said in a defensive tone. "We just need to get her something that relates to jewels or clothing."

I gave a heavy sigh. "…Neither of which is going to be something easy to come by."

We wandered through the town until we had gone through virtually every shop in the vicinity of the main road.

"Spike, I hate to admit it, but I don't think we're going to find anything remotely affordable that she would actually like."

"Aw come on! We haven't even checked…" his attention was stolen by something behind me. The object in question, was a hat.

"That's it! That's what I'll get her!"

"Are you sure about that? It doesn't even look like something she'd wear…"

"I told you that I'm positive!" And with that he strutted right through the front doors of the store.

The mare at the counter gave us a funny look. "What are you doing in here? This sure doesn't look like something you would wear."

I laughed as Spike blushed a little. "It's not for me actually…" he trailed off.

"Oh I get it…" The clerk winked. "I'll keep it a secret."

Spike was jubilant over the hat he got for Rarity. I still had no idea what I was going to do, but at that point I was too tired of shopping to really care.

"Spike, what do you say we call it a day and head back?"

"S

"Sure that sounds-" His face turned pale as a sudden wind picked the hat up and blew it away. "No! Wait! Stop!" (As if yelling at an inanimate object would do any good.)

We started running after it, but keeping it in sight was a harder task than I thought. The chase led us all over the town as the hat zig-zagged it's way through side streets and over the tops of buildings.

Spike had almost caught the hat when he tripped and skidded to a halt. "Ouch…"

The hat blew into the waters of a small river, and out of nowhere a huge fish bit off a side of the hat and took it down underwater.

"M, m…my hat…" Spike stuttered.

I plopped myself down next to Spike in the grass. "Now what do we do?"

"I don't know…"

The field where we were sitting was near Sweet Apple Acres.

I scanned the ground for a minute or two. "Spike! I think you found our solution!"

"I what?"

"I think I know what you stumbled over…" I walked over and yanked a yellow-orange stone out of the ground. "I think Rarity would like some of this."

"I don't think I've seen a stone like that before." He said in a quizzical manner. "It looks okay, but I bet it tastes even better."

I had to laugh at his stomach centered thoughts. "I would be careful about that. I know you like to munch away on gems, but this isn't technically a gemstone. I think this is a piece of amber, and there's probably more around here. If we can clean the dirt off of these, they should look pretty nice."

"Sounds like a plan to me!"

We continued looking around for other pieces of amber, but we weren't exactly equipped for the job. It took us a couple hours to get a fair amount of the yellow stones.

Someone called to us out of nowhere. "What the hey are y'all doin' digging holes in my field?"

Spike and I just looked at each other. "Um, hey there Applejack…"

"I asked you a question. Now what's the big idea of puttin' holes in my field?"

"We didn't know that this was on your property; we were just digging because we found some amber. We figured that Rarity might like it as a birthday present."

"What did you say you found here?"

"Amber. It's a petrified substance that looks a lot like a gemstone or crystal." I held one of them up. "See?"

"Well I'll be…I had no idea we had stuff like that around here." She took a moment to look around. "Ah'll let you off the hook as long as you fill in all these holes."

I let out a sigh of relief. "You've got yourself a deal."

"Good." She smiled at me. "Make sure you do the job right the first time. If it doesn't look nice, I'll make you come back and redo it."

That little escapade took up most of the afternoon. Applejack supplied us with the tools necessary to fix the holes, and that made the job much quicker. She came outside a while later to check on us.

"You two almost done? Rarity's party is in an hour or so."

"Yeah, I think we've got most of it."

"Don't worry about the rest; it'll be fine the way it is." Applejack assured me.

/

We cleaned up at Sweet Apple Acres, and after saying a quick hello and goodbye to Big Mac and Granny Smith, we headed off to the library, where Twilight and Pinkie Pie had spent the afternoon decorating.

The bright colors were a stark difference compared to the usual dim lighting. "You've obviously done a bit of work this afternoon…It's like a completely different place!"

"You bet!" Pinkie Pie smiled. "Parties make EVERYTHING different!"

"Speaking of which…where's Rarity?"

"She hasn't shown up yet. I'm sure she'll be along shortly."

"I hope nothing happened to her…" I shook my head and brushed the idea out of my mind. "_What am I thinking? This is Ponyville. Nothing really bad happens in Ponyville."_

An hour after that, we were still waiting. We were prepared for a party, but Rarity wasn't there.

"Y…you think she's okay?" Fluttershy whispered.

Applejack stood up out of her chair. "I'm not sure, but I'm gonna' take a look around for her."

"I'll join you." Twilight said.

I also tagged along in the hunt. The first place we stopped was the boutique, and the lights were out. I shoved the door open and glanced around the inside, but nothing seemed out of place.

In the mean time, Applejack was randomly calling out for Rarity. "Rarity…Rarityyyyy!"

"Applejack!" Twilight yelled. "You're making me nervous! Would you mind keeping it down for a moment?"

"Gosh Twilight, I don't mean t' hurt your ears or anything, but I'm just worried about that mare…"

"_Rarity…Where are you?"_ I looked over in the mirror at my reflection. There was a mark across my chest that hadn't been there before. "What happened to my shirt? Guys, why didn't you tell…" To my surprise, it wasn't my shirt that was ruined, but the mirror. There was a slash mark across the side, almost as if something had been dragged by.

Upon closer inspection, the table had objects swept off to the side and off the edge. They were small things: a pencil, a couple sewing needles, and some other odds and ends, but nevertheless, they obviously weren't supposed to be there. Rarity might be scatterbrained when she worked on her dresses, but the rest of the rooms were always spotless. _Always._

"What was that?" Twilight asked.

"I'm not sure. But somepony's been here, and I'm fairly confident that it wasn't Rarity."

"Oh come on, that could have just been coincidence."

"True, but even still…Do you smell that?"

"Smell what?"

"I can't place it. But I'm sure I know what it is…"

We walked back to the library, all the while keeping a sharp eye out for Rarity. We saw nothing and heard nothing.

At last the library came into view. "Something's not right…" I motioned to the library. "All the lights are out."

"Well I'll be darned…where'd those friends of ours head off to?" Applejack said with a slight bit of annoyance.

"Twilight…" I motioned. "It's that smell again."

She took a moment to survey the room. "I think you're right…"

We all stared around at the silent room.

Suddenly it came to me. "I've got it! That smell from earlier! I haven't encountered it in Ponyville, but I think it's a dairy smell, almost like chocolate…"

"So you're sayin' that you smell chocolate milk or someth-" Applejack's eyes widened as she slowly began to piece everything together.

"Discord's been here…" Twilight mumbled. "That was one of his favorite drinks."

"So he must have taken them while we were gone…" Applejack said with a moan.

"Discord…he was the one who broke free of his statue earlier right? If I remember correctly, he completely changed the landscape of Equestria once he had taken care of the Princess-" I caught myself mid sentence. "_Are the Princesses all right?"_

I turned my attention back to Twilight. "I know your friends are gone, but right now we need to worry about our own safety. I'm sure that if Discord was the one who came here, he probably was the moment we stepped inside."

"You're right, we should prepare for-" Twilight was cut off by an ominous laugh.

I slid back into the shadows and watched as a green cloud swirled into the room. A dragon (if that's what you could call it) appeared in the room with an eerie glow.

"Well well, if it isn't old Twilight! Long time no see. Where's all your friends?" He scratched his head for a moment, then flicked his fingers. "Oh that's right! They're gone!"

"What have you done with them?" Twilight yelled.

"I learned my lesson from last time. I gave you too many chances to save Equestria. I gave you one chance, and that was all you needed. This time, I won't be making the same mistake." He motioned to a map laying on the desk. "Do you know where we are?" He slid over and put his finger on the country labeled "Equestria". "_This_ is where we are. Your _friends_ on the other hand, are scattered right around…" He motioned his hand around an area far to the south-east. "Here, here, here, and er, all over there. That's where you ponies came from _before_ you took this wonderfully chaotic land from me. I just put them back where they belong. But don't worry! I haven't moved anybody else yet. Not even the Princesses know I'm here! I erected a statue that looks just like me back where mine used to be. Nobody should know the difference! Now then…"

He swept his hand and Applejack vanished in a cloud of green. "Oops. Looks like good ol' Applejack just disappeared! Where to I wonder?" He stared back over at the map. "I would guess right around…here."

"As for you, Miss Twilight, I think I'm going to leave you right here. I don't need to do anything with you. Your loneliness is all I need to see right now. I would have been scared of the Elements of Harmony, but last I checked, it required _all _of you, didn't it?"

Twilight looked crestfallen.

Discord on the other hand, was having the time of his life. "Such a sad face!" He laughed heartily. "I'll tell you what, I'll arrange things so that you can be with your friends. Here!" He brushed his hand over Twilight, and she vanished into a green cloud as well. "That should take care of them for the time being…"

He was obviously safe in the knowledge that his problems were miles away, floated around and talked aloud to himself. "What to do next…" He tapped the library doorknob lightly with his finger, and it sparkled just a tiny bit. "There we go. Now any curious ponies will be whisked away to where Twilight and her friends are. He floated right by me, and I was scared that he was going to notice me.

But he made no movements towards me, and merely vanished into a fog that dissipated into the air.

I ran over to the table and marked to the best of my memory where Discord had placed the others. After rolling it up, I grabbed a saddle pack, strung it over my shoulder, and began filling it with all sorts of different tools. Matches, the map, a couple canteens, a blanket, and a couple other various objects all went into the bag.

I did a quick once-over of the room to see if I missed anything important, then I hesitantly tapped the placed my hand on the doorknob. There was a bright flash, and I vanished from the room without a trace.

/

Author's Notes:

Happy New Year!

I'm sorry that I haven't posted anything in a while; I'll try to be more prompt about the next chapter.

I can't believe that we have to wait a whole 3 weeks for the next episode to come out…oh well. It is what it is.

Stay safe out there everypony!


	19. RTE Chapter 5: Wasteland

Chapter 5: Wasteland

There was a particularly nasty smell of sulfur in the air.

Where exactly I had been warped to was still a question, but from what I could tell, I was on the side of an active volcano.

"_Okay, so where is a volcano on this map…Aha! Here it is…" _I mentally traced the routes and landmarks that were visible, but there wasn't anything that useful. I now knew _where_ I was but not _what direction_ I was facing.

I called out a "hello" to anybody who might be in the vicinity, but there were no answers to my calls. I was alone for the time being.

"_Well this could turn out to be a lonely journey…"_ I had posted a quick warning on the library door before I left stating that nopony under any circumstance should try and open the door, since Discord had placed a spell on the doorknob to forcibly scatter innocent ponies across Equestria.

I cautiously worked my way up the volcano, trying to get a better look at the surrounding area, but there wasn't anything in the remote vicinity.

I spotted something purple off on the other side of the mountain, and I wandered my way across the hillside to the spot where it was.

"_It's Twilight! Finally somebody else to talk to…" _I waved my hand. "Hey Twilight!"

There was no response.

I walked over to her and noticed that she was moaning something. "_Twilight!" _

She had been hit in the side with a small, hot piece of debris from the active volcano. Furthermore, she was stuck in a fine, powdery rock substance that had slid over her backside.

"Twilight, you're going to need to sit still for just a second…" I pulled her out ever so slowly, and then used a little water and my sweatshirt to dab the area clean. "Are you going to be okay for now?"

She nodded her head, stood up shakily, and began walking after me.

I stopped to face her. "Twilight, do you know anything about where we are or what this place is?"

She stood in silence for a while until she could find an answer. "This is where we…" she didn't finish. "I think Canterlot is in that direction." She pointed towards the northeast. "Let me see that map."

I handed it to her and she gave it some examination. "As far as I can tell, we should be heading that way…" She looked up at me. "Thanks for helping me. My side felt like it was burning for the longest time. I owe you one."

I smiled and put my arm on her shoulder. "Anytime."

We continued meandering through the barren terrain until we reached the edge of a marshy swamp. It was an abrupt change, so abrupt that a definite line could be seen between the volcanic area and the marshland. "Twilight! Look at all this water! There's so much here…but almost none back at the volcano."

She looked around in amazement. "I've never seen something like this occur before." She looked down at the ground. "I wonder if we'll find everyone…"

I looked at the spots on the map I had marked. "Assuming that everypony stays around where they landed, there should be one in this area. Also, since we have no real knowledge of this area, we should be watching for-"

Bubbles began surfacing from the murky water. "Twilight, I think we should get back."

Something began to rise out of the water. In an effortless move, the grey monster it flicked boulders aside with an incredibly strong set of wings. "Let's go Twilight! Now!"

"But I think-"

Whatever it was, it flew straight at us. "_Those wings are functional!"_ It slammed into me and held me to the ground.

I winced and expected to be eaten or something. "Boy am I glad to see you guys!"

I peered up at the thing sitting on top of me. "Are you…Dashie!"

"Well OF COURSE! What did you think I was, some sort of-" she looked down at the greyish mud that was on her body. "On second thought, scratch that question. It's impossible to keep clean in here! I'm telling you, it's just water, water, water, and trees…" She shook herself off and exchanged a few "I'm so glad to see you!" sentences with Twilight.

"Have you guys found anypony else?" Rainbow Dash asked with apprehension.

Twilight shook her head. "We were hoping that you might have seen-"

"I did! Somepony fell just over there!" Dash pointed over to an area parallel with the line between the volcanic region and the swampy region.

"Let's get going then!" Twilight smiled.

We promptly set off on a path to find whoever it was that had landed near us. Rainbow Dash was all smiles the whole way, but something was obviously bothering Twilight. I didn't bother to ask her what it was.

We walked for a couple miles when I noticed tracks in the dirt. "Hey guys…look at this."

"Pinkie Pie has been here!" Twilight exclaimed.

"That's obvious!" Rainbow Dash said. "Look at the tracks! They're scattered everywhere! Only Pinkie Pie leaves tracks that random."

We canvassed the surrounding land, but we didn't find any trace of her. We continued our search into the grassy plains to our north. The grass was as tall as the ponies were, and almost as tall as I was in some spots.

"Ugh, I can't see anything!" Twilight scowled.

Rainbow Dash was circling above. "I think I see something! There's some grass moving up ahead!"

Sure enough, the grass moving; a pathway was being created as something moved around.

I called out to whatever it was. "Hello? Is that you Pinkie Pie?"

To my surprise, a different voice answered. "Josh? Thank goodness you're here!"

"Rarity! Follow the sound of my voice!" The task was easier said than done. It took us a good ten minutes to find each other.

After seeing Twilight and Rainbow Dash, Rarity collapsed on the ground in relief. "Thanks for looking for me; I was afraid that I'd be out here all alone!"

A head poked through the circle we had flattened in the grass. "You wouldn't have been alone!"

"Pinkie Pie!" Rarity yelled. "Where were you this whole time!"

"Trying to find you silly! You move all over the place when you're lost."

The four of them seemed to settle down a little, but I wasn't quite ready to let them rest. "We still have two others to find. Applejack and Fluttershy are still missing."

We trekked for what seemed like an eternity until evening, when we heard a slight gasp come from a tree.

"Did anybody else hear that?"

"I thought I heard something…" Pinkie Pie said.

As we were walking, a yellow figure dropped right on top of us (namely me and Rarity). "Fluttershy!"

"Guys! I'm so glad you're all okay!" She ran around and gave the group hugs. "Wait, where's Applejack?"

"We haven't seen her…" Rainbow Dash replied.

We walked back out onto the open plains, and settled in for the evening.

Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, and Twilight protested. "We should go out and look for Applejack!"

I didn't agree. "At the cost of what? The risk of being separated again? Fatigue? Hunger? If you're going to go out and look more, we need to get some energy back. I know for a fact that Twilight and I have been wandering this land for most of the day, without a break."

There was a general silence that fell over the group.

Suddenly, something made a loud crash in the forest. A figure darted from the trees, and something massive was following

"What in Equestria is THAT?" Rarity yelled.

The trees snapped like toothpicks as a grey cloud rolled across the forest

"That figure running away…Applejack!"

She turned her head and darted over to where we were, panting and puffing. "Hey *gasp* guys, didn't expect you *gasp* to be here."

"Now we're all together again!" Rainbow Dash said.

A column of ash rose into the air, blotting out the sun.

"The volcano's eruptin'!" Applejack yelled.

"We need to get out of here! Right now!" Rainbow Dash replied.

We took off as fast as we could, but keeping a large distance between us and the red hot cloud of ash was harder than expected. "_If we're caught in that thing, we'll choke on the fumes…"_

Pinkie Pie motioned with her head. "There's a lake over there!"

"We'll have to jump in!" Twilight said.

I was never one for water sports, so I wasn't enthused about the idea, but it was the only option at the moment.

We dove into the water, and Rarity swam over to an opening in the lake, where there was an underwater cave.

We surfaced in a spacious cavern that was surprisingly dry.

"Is everybody alright?" Fluttershy asked.

"I think so, but my mane is soaked…" Rarity said in disgust.

I struck a match and lit a fire in the middle of the room. While the other ponies were trying to warm up, I noticed Twilight had gone to look at something on the ground. I walked over to her and peered over her shoulder. "Twilight? What is it?"

She was depressed like nothing I had ever seen. "I…I didn't want to believe it. I can't believe I'm actually saying this, but Discord is right. This is where we belong."

The group responded with a unanimous "What?"

She was holding something worn and weathered, something of an age long past. "He's technically right. We stole the land of Equestria from him. Look at this! This is definitely a writing tool I've seen in my studies of the old land. This land might be desolate and barren, but we had no right to take that land from him…"

I gave her a hug and tried to dry her off. "Twilight, although it's an entertaining thought, you have to remember _why_ Princess Celestia sealed away Discord. It was because the ponies were suffering. The ponies were suffering, so Princess Celestia used what power she had to seal him away; this meant that Equestria had no ruler, so she was granted that title. There is nothing wrong in saving those who are hurt."

Twilight seemed to perk up, and that was a huge relief to me. No matter how hard I tried, Twilight was the organized one of the group, and having her lose hope would have a negative impact on the group as a whole.

Pinkie Pie broke into the conversation with glee. "Look at what I found!"

She led us over to a tunnel in the cavern wall. "It looks like somepony was here before us!"

The walls of the tunnel were smooth, as if they were built for continued use. I could feel a slight breeze flowing by us.

"Twilight, do you know anything about these tunnels?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"I think that these tunnels were built for some of the ponies who wanted to travel to Equestria without risking going over the land. Wait! That means-"

"These would lead straight home!" Rainbow Dash finished. "Right on!"

"Let's get goin' then!" Applejack yelled.

I lit an ancient lantern that had been left behind, and we began the long, dark walk back.

/

Author's Notes:

I'm back! (Finally!) I thought I would be able to write up this part of the story MUCH sooner, but my parents pleasantly surprised me after New Years (I won't go into detail) with a few things that kept me busy. (Thanks mom and dad!)

Also, this might seem like a silly question, but does anybody here know what the symbol combination for a straight line divider is? I've seen some authors use a line that crosses the page as a separator between sections, but I only know how to do the / separator. I would much rather use the line divider, so if any of you know, please let me know!


	20. RTE Chapter 6: The Long Haul Back

Chapter 6: The Long Haul Back

"Are we there yet?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Pinkie, we've gone over this before. We won't be getting back for a long time." Twilight responded.

We had been walking through a series of tunnels for what seemed like hours, but without the sun or stars above us, we couldn't really tell.

The lanterns we were using had gone out on us once or twice, which had been fairly frightening since they were our only source of light.

"Ugh, is it just me or is it wet in here?" Rarity asked.

"Caves are usually wet Rarity." I answered sarcastically.

"Ah' think she's right on this one; there's running water on the floor." Applejack said.

"_She's right. It's coming from behind us…"_ I looked around for any signs of a way out. "Guys, we're going to need to pick up the pace a little." I said.

"Why is that?" Rainbow Dash said.

"I think the room that we were in a long time ago had a wall break or something. The water is ever so slowly rising."

Not only was there water slowly coming in from behind, but I could hear a large rush of water ahead. We came upon an underground spring, which was lit from an air vent bored in the top of the room. The apparent flow of water had caused a segment of the tunnel ahead to collapse. By this time the water was up to our knees.

"Not to be a downer or anythin', but Ah think we should all git outta' here!" Applejack said nervously.

"I agree!" Fluttershy said.

We began crossing a bridge in the center of the spring one by one, but only after half of us were across, a wave began to crumble the bridge apart from the center. "Get off of the bridge!" Rainbow Dash yelled.

She swooped down and picked up Applejack off of the bridge, lifting her to safety. Meanwhile Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and I were stuck behind a steadily rising wave.

"Canterlot shouldn't be too far ahead!" Twilight yelled to them. "You go ahead and warn the Princess! We'll catch up with you later!"

Rainbow Dash looked hesitant, but she eventually joined Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity in escaping through the air shaft.

"Can we swim over there?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"No good." Twilight responded. "The water would just push us away!"

"Twilight, we don't have a choice." I added. "It's either that or we go back into the long tunnel we just came through, and there's definitely not enough going to be enough breathing room in there."

Although not exactly a great move, we decided on jumping into the current and seeing where it took us. I plunged into the water with a flurry of bubbles, with Pinkie Pie and Twilight soon following. We followed the current into a dark tunnel that dove down a ways, and then took a sharp turn back up towards the surface.

I was beginning to have a hard time holding my breath, and I could tell that Pinkie Pie was having the same problem. Twilight however, was nowhere to be found.

I motioned back towards where we came from, and Pinkie Pie shrugged. We began swimming back to get her, but she came up the tube with a bubble suspended around her head. She moved the bubble from her, to Pinkie Pie, and then to me, where we were able to get a good breath in before she swapped it back out again.

The cycle continued until we came up out of the water into an area that looked similar to the Everfree Forest.

We popped out of the water and laid back on the grass, breathing as hard as we could.

"We *pant* made it *pant* guys…" I said happily.

Twilight just nodded, and Pinkie Pie bounced around for joy. "Wemadeitwemadeitwemadeit!"

I stood up and tried to wring the water out of my clothes, and while Pinkie Pie and Twilight shook themselves dry off to the side.

It was nearly evening, and we could see Canterlot off in the distance, so we continued on towards it in a straight line.

When evening came around, it finally dawned on us that staying on the ground wasn't such a safe idea.

"We don't really have anything to camp out with, do we?" I asked Twilight.

"No, we don't…the best option would be to make something, or sleep somewhere up high…"

"We could sleep in a tree." I suggested.

Pinkie Pie was all for it. "That sounds fun!"

We continued on for an hour or so, until it was too dark to continue. We found the tallest tree we could find, and climbed up to the taller branches, where we got a better view of the surrounding area.

I leaned back against the rough bark of the tree, staring out over the dark sea of trees. _"So this is Equestria's darker half…"_

Twilight awkwardly climbed up after me, but there wasn't really enough room for three people. There wasn't much room, so she looked a little lost.

I pulled her closer to me, and she laid down leaning against my side. Pinkie Pie followed suit on my right side.

I gazed out at the rising stars, and drifted off to sleep holding the best purple pony right by my side.

* * *

><p>I woke up early to the sunrise off in the distance.<p>

"Hey you two, it's time to get up."

"Mmph…" Twilight responded.

I poked Pinkie Pie in the side, and she jumped about three feet in the air before returning to the branch we were on. "Ohmygoshwhattimeisit!" She yelled.

"I don't know, but Canterlot is right in front of us." I motioned to the quiet castle up on the mountain side.

We descended the tree, and continued our long walk up to Canterlot.

Now, contrary to popular belief, there _are_ roads that make traveling to Canterlot by foot a fairly simple task, but these roads are few and far between.

We must have walked for two hours or so until we caught a lucky break and stumbled upon one of the main roads leading to Canterlot.

"Do you guys hear that?" Pinkie Pie asked.

Twilight and I stopped to listen.

"I think I do!" Twilight said.

I couldn't hear anything.

"It sounds like…other ponies!" Pinkie Pie continued. "Come on!"

Sure enough, there was a convoy headed to Canterlot, so we joined up with their party in hopes that it would make the journey smoother.

The stallion in charge was a gruff, old pony that didn't look like he had ever had a smile on his face. "You want to what? First off, who are you and what are you doing out here?"

"I'm Twilight Sparkle, and this is Pinkie Pie and Josh."

"What is this…Josh thing?"

"It's a long story…" Twilight said with a sigh.

"Well if you can't tell me, then we're leaving you here. I'm not going to-"

"Daddy!" Another pony said in frustration.

A white mare came around the corner, looking very upset. "You know we can't just leave these poor travelers out here!" She motioned to the three of us. "Come on, you look like you could use some food for energy."

The mare went on to introduce herself. "I'm Winter Withers, and you just met my father. I'm sorry if he was a bit gruff, it just is who he is."

"What are you doing going to Canterlot?" Pinkie Pie asked.

"Oh, I'm going to meet with one of the Wonderbolts."

"Really! That's amazing! What Rainbow Dash would give to do that…"

What her official business exactly consisted of was something she didn't share with us, but we didn't pry any further. (Although it was weird considering that she as an earth pony, who didn't have any wings. She did have a cutie mark with a cloud and a lightning bolt pattern, so that may have had something to do with it).

She gave us a good meal (which was something we had missed the last evening), but she had heard nothing strange about anything happening around the capitol.

"No, everything's fine." She insisted. "I've met ponies who had just met with the Princess, so she must be okay."

I gave Twilight and Pinkie Pie a confused look, but they were just as lost as I was.

A little more than an hour later, we were approaching the gates of Canterlot castle. Twilight yelled for one of the guards, and he listened with concern.

"I just saw the Princess this morning though." He said sincerely.

"I know that, but she's in danger!"

"Nothing out of the ordinary has come through today ma'am. I'll see if we can prioritize a meeting with her…"

"Thank you!" Twilight said in an exasperated tone. "Now," she said turning to Pinkie Pie and I "we need to look for the others and make sure that they're okay."

We wandered the streets, trying to find any trace of any of the others, but nothing turned up. There were a couple instances when we accidently mistook a pony for one of the mane six, but it turned out to be somepony completely different.

We walked out towards the plaza, and there seemed to be a commotion between the soldiers.

"Hey Twilight, look up there!" I pointed to where the guards were all rushing to.

"I know, something must have happened. We need to head that direction as well."

We ran over to the main structure, but the guards weren't allowing anybody in.

"We're sorry, but we can't seem to find either of the Princesses at the moment."

A burst of green light flashed from one of the towers, and the guards rushed off to find out what had caused it.

But none of them returned.

Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and I watched the guards enter, but none of them came back out.

"I think something happened guys…" Pinkie Pie said.

Working our way up to the throne room, we checked every corner and every room for any sign of movement, but we were the only ones there.

Eventually we came to a dining hall where all of the tables were floating upside down. I gave Twilight an uneasy look, and she shook her head as if she knew what I was thinking.

Continuing forwards yielded even crazier results: inverted color changes, gravity changes, and so on.

Twilight turned to Pinkie Pie and I. "I'm sure that Discord locked up the others in the dungeon, and we need to find them before we can do anything else."

We found the closest staircase shaft and walked the spiral down the castle, until we reached the guard station on the first floor. It was a secured area, but there wasn't anypony there to guard it, which allowed us to walk right by. We yanked open the first gate, and continued into the darker prison cells below.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes:<p>

Getting there, the next chapter should (hopefully) be something different than the norm. We'll see, I'm trying to write it in a different way than usual.


	21. RTE Chapter 7: The Vault

Chapter 7: The Vault

* * *

><p>"Hello?" Twilight called into the dungeon. "Anypony in here?"<p>

Twilight's echo drowned out any response that might have been sent. We continued along the corridor, but in the darkness below, it was hard to make out anything.

I heard movement off to our far right. "I think there's somepony in here!" I yelled.

We rushed down the narrow corridors, and we found Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash locked in a prison cell.

"Thank goodness you guys are here!" Rainbow Dash said. "We've been getting bored in here!"

"And my mane is a total disaster now…" Rarity added.

We opened the gate, and devised a strategy to deal away with Discord. "It's going to have to be you guys, since I have no power here."

"Right, but we don't have the Elements of Harmony. We'll have to go and-"

Building shook and a hollow sound of stone breaking came reverberating through the walls.

"He knows we're here!" Applejack yelled.

Twilight was getting nervous. "If one of us is gone, he'll know we're up to something. But we need the Elements…"

I raised my hand. "I'll go grab the Elements; you find a way to buy some time. All of you need to stay safe though, since it will require all of you to work."

Twilight thought it over. "Alright, the Elements of Harmony used to be kept in a vault behind the throne room. Discord discovered that vault, so Princess Celestia put fake ones there and hid the real ones on the fourth floor, in the library."

"And you know this _how?_"

She just smiled. "I'm her student; I just know these things."

Twilight looked over as the sound of collapsing walls came closer.

She turned back to look at me. "I don't know the exact location, but you'll need to find a book about the Elements of Harmony in the library. You'll have to figure out the rest from there."

We ran back upstairs, and Twilight directed me to a staircase that lead up to the third floor, while they took the other.

"Alright, see you guys in a little while."

"Good luck!" Rainbow Dash said.

"_Alright, it's a straight shot up the staircase and then over to the left three rooms, and that should be the library." _

I ran up two floors until the stairs caved in right in front of me, and I caught a glimpse of the mane six retreating from Discord at a slow pace.

I hung my head and looked at the gap. "_Twilight! I needed this staircase! You couldn't have chosen a different path?"_

There was no way I was crossing the gap, it was a good ten feet across and quite a drop down.

"_I know there's a matching staircase on the opposite side of the structure…"_

I ran back down the stairs, making sure to keep out of sight. This wasn't exactly easy, since Twilight and the others were in the hallway that ran parallel to the one I was in, and every time I ran by a linking corridor, there was a chance that I would be seen.

"_Alright, almost there…"_

The castle itself was thousands of square feet, so getting to the opposite side took longer than I had hoped. I ran halfway up the stairs, out of sight, and took a breather.

"_You're fine now. You just have to run all the way back in the opposite direction…"_

I peered over the railing. "_So far, so good…" _My problem was that the hallway that I was in wasn't connected to the one I needed it to.

I looked on a table, and there was a map of the castle interior. "_Aha! So I have to go up a floor and then back down on the other side…"_

I stuffed the map in my pocket and ran up a set of stairs in the back of the room. I emerged outside on one of many viewing platforms that overlooked the courtyard. I could see Rainbow Dash darting around Discord's head, as Twilight and Applejack were trying to restrict his movements.

There was a sudden noise to my front right, and on an adjacent platform, there was some form of bloodhound, but it disfigured and was monstrous in size.

"_I'd bet a hundred dollars that's a creation of Discord, not somepony's pet."_

I cautiously walked over to a staircase that lead back down to the hallway where I needed to be. The hound made a movement as I walked down, and I froze.

"_Did it see me? Do I continue walking and risk it hearing me? Or do I sit still? Assuming it can leap that kind of distance, it might jump over here and find me. On the other hand, I could peek up and see if it actually did see me, but then I would risk being seen again…"_

I cautiously stepped down and peered out a stained glass window at the roof across from me.

"_It's gone!"_

I scanned the rooms as I went by, and eventually I found the library. It was a warmly lit room with wood floors, wood bookshelves, and wood seats.

"_Finally! Now where would the Elements of Harmony be? I need to find a book about it…"_

I wandered around, looking for some sort of obvious clue, but I didn't get that lucky.

"_Alright, would the book be under 'E' for 'Elements' or 'H' for 'Harmony'?"_

I scoured the whole section of books starting with "E".

"_Equestrian Birds, Equestrian Mammals, Equestria Equestria Equestria...is that all they have here?"_

There was nothing even remotely close to "Elements of Harmony."

"_Alright, then I guess I'll try-" _I stopped to look around. "_I'm sure something just moved, but what?"_

I hid myself in a secluded corner of the library, where I had a better vantage point and was able to get a better glimpse of what was going on.

There was a heavy breathing from the opposite side of the bookcase. "_That hound! He followed me!"_

It began running in an attempt to find me, and I knew I wouldn't be able to outdistance it for very long. I weaved my way in and out of the shelves, trying to avoid it at all costs, but eventually, it got sight of me, and it sped up dramatically.

"Get away from me you mutt!" I yelled at it.

I jumped up onto the librarian's desk, and then climbed up on top of the bookcases. The hound couldn't follow me, but it kept never broke eye contact unless I did first.

"_Wonderful. Now I can't even go down there without being bitten…"_

A shadow passed over me, and I looked out the window to see Fluttershy flying away from Discord.

I mentally scolded myself for getting into such a silly situation. "_For crying out loud, those ponies need you. Now figure out a way to get rid of this dog!"_

I began jumping from shelf to shelf, and luckily for me they were bolted to the ground, so they wouldn't fall over.

The hound followed my every step, watching me intently. It never made a sound the entire time. At one point, it tripped over a small crate of books on the floor. It never registered in my head until a minute later.

"_Aha! It's so focused on me it's not paying attention to it's surroundings…"_

I walked backwards a ways, making sure to keep it's focus. When I ran, it ran with me. When I walked, it walked with me. I jumped over to a bookcase that was connected to a wall, then traced the path I would travel.

"_Let's see how well you can run." _I smiled to myself.

I ran as hard as I could towards the opposite wall, and the hound took off down the corridor to my side. I kept looking straight at it, and as he ran, he completely ignored the stained glass window that he was approaching.

I used my arms as shock absorbers and ran straight into the wall, while Discord's creation smashed it's head through glass and fell to the ground.

"_That solves that problem…"_

I hopped down and continued looking through all of the books in any of the sections labeled "H".

"_Housekeeping, Home cooking, Horse…stuff." _I shrugged as I put the book back on the shelf. "_I have no idea why they keep some of these books around…"_

I went through every book there, but once again, nothing caught my eye.

"_There's got to be something! Half an hour of fast scanning and I've gotten nowhere! Don't tell me that it has a false cover or something…" _I peered back outside quickly to check on the others, but they had evidently taken the scuffle to another section of the castle.

I sat down in a chair to take a quick break. I was still racking my head for ideas. "_I'll never find it at that rate!"_ I began to drift off in my thoughts as stared off into space in front of me, but then I noticed a certain pink book. Why it caught my attention is beyond me, but it was in the "F" section.

"_What is this…'Friendship is Magic'?"_ I smiled to myself. "_I get it…"_

I picked the book up off of the shelf, and flipped through the pages. The moment I got to the page describing the Elements of Harmony, a bookshelf in the back of the room slid down into the floor, and revealed a hidden tunnel.

"YES!" I shouted.

I ran inside and found myself in a small, circular room. It was dimly lit, and it had six pedestals and the Elements of Harmony resting on each one.

"_Now we're getting somewhere…"_

I knew that they were necklaces, but I attached them to my arm, like a bracelet, swept back towards my shoulder.

"_There we go, now I won't lose them…"_

Since Twilight's was a tiara, I had to carry hers in my hand.

"_Somebody sure has good taste when it comes to creating magical apparel…" _

I raced out of the library and slid down the banister, towards the echoes of shouts and fighting.

The whole time I was clenching Twilight's tiara in my hand, I couldn't help but worry about her. "_Please be alright, please be alright!"_

With those thoughts running through my head, I quietly began to make my way towards the scene of the battle.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes:<p>

So this was my fun test; I wanted to have one chapter where it was pretty much _only_ Josh, dialoguing with himself. I actually think it turned out okay!

Only a couple more chapters (as far as I know), so this should be fun!


	22. RTE Chapter 8: Versus Discord

Chapter 8: Versus Discord

There were echoes of shouts sailing through the halls of the castle.

"_Come on, where are you guys?"_

The hallway split into three directions, so I listened in for the sound of the mane six.

"_To the right, but that would lead right back…"_

I rounded the next corner and stopped myself just before the door. "_Back to the throne room again? What are they thinking?"_

I held my position right outside of the door, keeping just out of sight. When I peeked around the corner, I saw Princess Celestia and Princess Luna trapped in stone, one on each side of the throne. Discord had his back towards the entryway; he was trying to get to the Princesses, but Twilight and the others were preventing him from advancing.

"_Alright, I'm this far. Now I just need a distraction…"_

Discord, obviously tired of the game he was playing, began to spray green flames around the room. Twilight and the gang scattered, each one trying to keep out of Discord's range.

I turned around and ran up a flight of stairs to the balcony above the throne room.

"_Noise! I need some sort of noise…" _I looked around the hallway, and opened up a display cabinet on the side. I picked up a plate that looked like fine China. "_Celestia is going to kill me for this…"_

I flung it off of the balcony and towards the stained glass window. I winced when it flew right through the flimsy glass, and broke on the ground outside. "_…or maybe she'll send me to the moon."_

Discord was curious as to how the glass broke, and he had begun a frenzied search for the origin of the noise. "That wasn't part of the plan!" He hissed.

"_Tell me about it…I just wanted it to bounce off of the glass, not destroy it entirely!"_

In the mean time, I had snuck back downstairs and caught the attention of Applejack and Rainbow Dash. "_Hey guys!" _I hissed.

Rainbow Dash stopped short and flew over to pick me up. "Where have you been! You took so long that we began to search the castle trying to find you!"

"I got a little…hung up." I pulled Rainbow Dash's necklace off of my arm. "Here, I think this is yours."

"Sweet! I haven't seen this thing in a long time!" she replied.

She flew me over to where the rest of the mane six were hiding momentarily, and I passed out the remaining necklaces.

All but one.

"Hey, where's Twilight?"

"I thought she was right behind us!" Rarity said in an urgent tone.

We ran back over to the throne room, but there was nobody in sight.

"Where did she go!" Pinkie Pie yelled.

"I don't know!" I said defensively.

Fluttershy looked like she had something to say, so I motioned for her to speak up. "Well, Discord might be after the Elements of Harmony as well…"

"That's right! They might be in the chamber that holds the fake Elements!" Rarity said.

Our suspicions were confirmed when we heard the distinct voice of Discord emanating from the holding chamber.

"Some friends those are." Discord said sarcastically. "I don't remember them being quite so…skittish."

"I'm sure they have a plan." Twilight said. "They're probably going to go get the Elements of Harmony." She said triumphantly.

Discord on the other hand, was cracking up. "The Elements of Harmony! Helloooo! Equestria to Twilight! They went the WRONG WAY."

He flew over to the hallway where the Elements used to be stored. "If you'll recall, THIS is where the Elements of Harmony are." He flicked his fingers and the seal opened, revealing the replicas. "See what I mean? Look at them! They were once something I feared! But they're actually quite harmless if they're out of your hooves!"

The other five of us and I had snuck in behind, and I was leaning against the wall, spinning the tiara in my hand. "Is that so?"

Discord jumped as if he had just had a heart attack. "Who are YOU?"

"That's not really important at the moment, but I would like to see how 'harmful' these Elements really are when they're in the right hooves."

I tossed the tiara over to Twilight, and she used her magic to float it over onto her head.

Discord was still confused. "Wait, what? What are those? And if those are what I think they are, then what are these?" He pointed towards the fake "Elements" that were in the old vault.

"Those are replicas of the Elements of Harmony. Joshua here went and retrieved them while we kept you busy."

"Now just wait a minute! That's a dirty trick! Why, that sounds like something I would do…" He chuckled to himself. He quickly regained his composure and amassed a large amount of magic around him. "I remember what those things can do! I'm not making the same mistake I did the first time!" He muscled up a huge amount of strength, and spread a floating field of green magic that acted as a temporary shield.

Twilight and her friends became locked in a duel of magic. It was no longer a matter of who used magic the best, the winner would now be determined by who had the strongest willpower.

I had to step back behind cover as the sheer amount of magic seeped across the room. Whether it was dangerous or not was unknown, but I wasn't going to find out the hard way.

I peeked around the corner, and they were still in a standstill battle. The Elements of Harmony sought to seal away Discord, while Discord's magic was desperately trying to keep him free.

Twilight made a last ditch shove of energy, and the Elements won over Discord in a dazzling display of light. His field of magic began to decrease exponentially in size, until he was slowly paralyzed in stone.

"I don't know who you are or where you came from, but I'm going to remember you!" Discord said with a sneer. "You shouldn't be interfering with matters like this! I went through all this work and you RUINED IT! I hope you're happy knowing that!"

I smiled and bowed as the last sections of his body were turned back into solid rock.

Twilight and the others collapsed in a heap, and I ran over to check on them.

The others woke up the moment that Discord's field of magic retreated, but Twilight was still out of it for a minute or two.

I kneeled down and laid her head on my lap. The others gathered around and looked on as she woke up.

"Ouch!" She said holding her head.

I gave her a hug. "I'm glad you're okay."

Celestia and Luna walked in looking for answers. "What happened! And why is my throne room a complete disaster?"

Her gaze shifted over to the statue of Discord. "Alright, does somepony want to explain what this thing is doing in here?"

Twilight explained in full detail all that had happened, as the rest of us walked up to the princesses and checked to make sure that both of them were okay. They were insistent that they were just fine, so we left it at that.

I sat back against a pillar and caught my breath. Twilight soon joined me.

"That tiara looks good on you. It looks like it was designed for you." I smiled at her.

She sat down next to me. "Believe it or not, this was Celestia's at one point." She pulled it off of her head and gazed at it for a while.

"I'm sure it looked wonderful on her as well."

She smiled to herself, and I let her lean against my side.

She didn't say anything, so I continued. "Thanks Twilight."

"For what?"

"Including me in all this." I waved my hand around the room. "For befriending a complete stranger and letting him interact with a mere story that I only dreamed of interacting with."

"You're welcome." She winked. "Although I'm afraid that we've used up quite a bit of your time here by trying to beat Discord at his own game."

"Not a problem. I'd rather work to spend time in a land ruled by Celestia and Luna than relax in some upside down place ruled by Discord."

Celestia walked back in and gave us a funny smile. "I would sure _hope_ so…"

I laughed at the look on her face. "I'm glad you're back in charge once again."

I stood up and brushed myself off, and Twilight followed me into the throne room, where we went over all that had happened with both the royalty and the guards, who had mysteriously reappeared after Discord had lost the battle with the mane six.

"…and there you have it. The rest is pretty self explanatory." I concluded.

Some of them were still a little confused as to what had happened, since they had no recollection of what had happened for the time that they were absent from the castle grounds.

"You can get some rest now if you'd like; we have extra rooms in the upper floors of the east tower." Celestia said.

"I've been waiting for somepony to say that all day!" I grinned.

I walked up the ornate stairs, across a bridge, and into an extravagant room with a king sized bed and all of the pillows a person could possibly ask for. I fell on the bed without even bothering to change out of my clothes. The door opened part way, and a pony stepped in.

"Twilight? What are you doing here?"

"Oh nothing really…" She said sheepishly. "I had just said goodnight for the evening to the rest of my friends, so I figured that I'd say goodnight to you also."

She walked over to my bed, and hopped on top of the blankets.

I took note of her appearance. "You _do_ know that you still have your tiara on, right?"

"What? Oh, I guess I do." She said as she looked at the golden crown on her forehead. "I'll take care of it tomorrow…" she said with a tired sigh.

She leaned her head on my stomach, and I held the soft unicorn close to me, as we both drifted off to sleep.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes:<p>

AHA! I had this chapter done last week, but every time I looked at it, I just didn't like what I saw. So I rewrote it, then read it again, then did another rewrite, etc. I think I went through this loop about six or seven times, and I'm _still_ not totally happy with it, but I figured that I should get it up here before I leave you guys in the dark any longer.

Thanks for your guy's patience!


	23. RTE Chapter 9: A Day to Myself

Chapter 9: A Day to Myself

I was rudely aroused early in the morning by one of the guards. "Excuse me, but we need to get this room ready for guests that are due to arrive in a couple hours."

"Sure thing…" I mumbled. "Just give me an hour of sleep, and I'll be good *yawn* to go…"

"We need this room, right now."

"Oh fine." I said with displeasure.

I got up out of the bed, and was hurried out of the room the moment I was on my feet. Oddly enough, Twilight was already gone.

"Tell Princess Celestia I'm grateful for the room and board." I called after the guard.

He just nodded.

"_I wonder where Twilight went…_" I stared out over the balcony at the courtyard, and saw that there were already a group of ponies rushing carts, decorations, and other such objects around the castle grounds. "_What's going on?"_

I walked down the staircase down the bottom floor, and I observed the activities that were unfolding in front of me.

An orange unicorn walked up to my side without me noticing. "The event doesn't start for another couple hours, but can I help you, Mister…um…"

"Wha- oh, just call me Josh. And I'm not part of this. Although if you wouldn't mind me asking, what exactly is going on here?"

"You don't know? Today is a meeting between the dignitaries from across Equestria. They all convene twice a year to discuss various matters."

"I see…I'm not actually from Equestria, so this is all foreign to me."

She was intrigued. "Really? You must live quite a ways off, considering that Equestria spans a monumental amount of space."

"You could say that…"

She looked up at the clock. "I need to get going, but if you need anything, there's ponies all over who would be more than happy to help."

"Will do. Thanks for your time."

I happened to glance up at the towers, and I saw Princess Celestia having a casual conversation with Twilight. "_So that's where you've been…"_

I desperately wanted to join them, but I really didn't want to intrude on them, since I figured they were just catching up with each other.

In fact, this turned out to be the story with all of the other ponies. I managed to find Rainbow Dash, but she was having the time of her life with the Wonderbolts. Rarity happened to be spending the day with Fancypants, and I couldn't even find any of the others.

"_Now what am I supposed to do? I have no real idea of the layout of Canterlot, and I can't really ask for someone to guide me around."_

A sudden crack of thunder shook me out of my train of thought, and I watched as the Wonderbolts and Rainbow Dash started an impromptu race in the airspace near the castle. The best part was that they looked like they were having _fun_. It wasn't so much the race that entertained me, but the huge grins that they had on their faces while they were doing it.

Eventually the race transitioned over to a stunt competition, and I sat on an empty bench and watched in fascination as they performed loops, rolls, and other aerial maneuvers with unparalleled skill.

By the end of their midair show, I was smiling as much as they were. I lost track of them after somepony started a game of midair tag, and by that time it wasn't as much of "pleasing the crowd" as it was "I'm getting as far away from here as fast as possible".

"_That was actually pretty entertaining. I should really go watch more of their shows!"_

I scanned the crowd just for fun, and one of the ponies caught my attention. All of it.

"_An alicorn? No, just a unicorn. But look at her! She's gorgeous…She must be Fleur de Lis!"_ She was tall, slender, and different than most of the other ponies. I wandered off after her out of sheer curiosity.

She entered one of the buildings adjacent to the castle, which appeared to be a dress studio much like Rarity's boutique. When I wandered in, I was nearly flattened by a crate of dresses rolling by on a trolley.

"My apologies 'mate. Didn't see you there." The worker said. "What are you doing here anyways?"

"I was going to ask something along the same lines. This building isn't labeled, but I see it has quite the collection of formal wear. Is this some sort of store?"

"Store!" He laughed out loud. "Of course not. This is Fleur's private collection, although some of the wealthy ponies hire her to store their dresses in this here climate controlled environment."

I looked around at the vast lines of dresses. "You mean that _all_ of these are hers?"

"Pretty much. Ponies can also rent them out if they wish, but that doesn't happen too often."

"Where is Miss Fleur?"

"You lookin' for a dress or somethin'?"

I gave him an unamused stare.

"I'm just kidd'n. I suspect she's in choosing a dress for this evening. With this many to choose from, she has the hardest time making a decision." He chuckled to himself.

I continued on through a large arch, into a white room with a possibly a hundred mannequins lined up for display.

"Hello?" A voice called out.

"Er, yes?"

"Oh good, you can move those dresses you have over to the corner. I'll sort them in just a moment."

"I'm afraid I don't have any dresses."

A head poked out of the rows of mannequins. "What are you doing here? Actually, let's start with _what are you?_"

I turned to see the white unicorn from earlier. "Ah, my name is Josh, and I'm a human. I just came to introduce myself. You're Fleur de Lis, correct?"

"I am." She said with a raised eyebrow.

"To make a long story short, we have stories about ponies where I come from, but to us they were just fairy tales so to speak. You appear in one of the stories, so I figured that I might as well meet you face to face."

She gave me a bewildered look.

"I know, I know, it's a little hard to understand. That was pretty much how I felt when I first stepped into Equestria."

She stopped what she was doing and walked over to me. "Alright then, what can I do for you?"

"Nothing really, I just wanted to see what kind of a pony you were. You never actually do any talking in the stories, so it was something that nagged at me all this time."

"That's it…?"

"Pretty much; if you had a chance to meet somepony from a fairy tail, wouldn't you take the opportunity?"

"I suppose I see what you're saying."

"I have nothing to do all day, so if you need anything, give me a holler."

"Really?" She said with a smile. "I do have one thing…How's your taste in fashion?"

I backed away a little. "That would definitely NOT be my realm of expertise."

"That doesn't matter to me. Besides, you're here now, and I'm kind of curious to see what kind of tastes in fashion you…_humans_ have."

She wandered in through the rows of mannequins, and finally lifted one off of the stand with her magic. "I need a dress for tonight, and I want something that will floor everypony. Does this look good?"

"I personally think you'd look great in anything. You're considered attractive by both pony and human standards, so unless you _really_ tried, I don't think anypony is going to dislike your looks."

She gave me a frown. "That doesn't help me, but I thank you for the compliment."

She continued asking me for my opinion, and I felt completely out of place, so I meandered through the endless sea of dresses, trying to find something that would suit her tastes. Even though we spent a couple hours looking through dresses, nothing really stood out to me.

Eventually I ended up in front of a storage crate in the back.

I reached up and touched the side. "Hey Fleur, what's in this-"

I jumped back as the front panel fell down and clattered on the floor in front of me.

"Josh! Be careful in here! I should have you removed from this place before you cause any more harm…" She came back to where I was, and surveyed the "damage".

"Look, no harm done. It didn't hit anything."

"All that dust is going to get on the surrounding dresses, and now I have to wash them again."

I shook my head and began thumbing through the hangars of dresses. "Why aren't these out here?"

"Those are old and out of style. We'll probably end up selling them sometime in the near future."

"Really?" I pulled out a silky white dress from the middle of the rack and gave it a once over. "This looks nice." It was a plain white dress with minimalistic accents around the edges, not quite like a wedding dress, but something of that nature.

"No, that won't work." She sighed. "It's just too…ordinary." She set it down on the ground and put the front back on the crate. "I need to get back to work, but it was nice meeting you. I hope that I met all of your expectations."

"My expectations and beyond." I bowed.

I walked to the door, and asked one final question. "By the way, when was the last time a pony wore an 'ordinary' dress to one of these events?"

"What? I, um, well, I don't really know…"

I left her staring at the dress on the floor with an expression of a brand new idea on her face.

Back outside, the sun was a little past noon, and the initial burst of activity had increased to a continual stream of high end ponies, unicorns, and pegasi.

A pegasus was circling the courtyard, and swooped down to my location once he spotted me.

"You must be Josh!"

"That would be me…"

"Princess Celestia told me that I would know you when I saw you, and sure enough, you stand out in a crowd!" He handed a letter to me. "This is an invitation to tonight's festivities."

"You need an invite to go?"

"Not necessarily, but to sit in on the VIP meeting, you do."

"I have no idea why the Princess wants me there, but I'm not going to turn her down…"

"I should hope not!" He said as he flew away.

I opened the envelope, inspected its contents, then stuffed it in my pocket for later.

I cruised the stores for a while, then found myself in a book store, where I spent the afternoon browsing through a short but fairly well written novel that told the tale of an ancient knight of Equestria.

It only seemed like a minute had passed, but when I looked up at the clock again, the evening events had already started.

"_Oh no…I'm late!"_

I hastily paid the storekeeper for letting me read the book (I couldn't really take it with me), and rushed off to the main hall.

The castle had been thoroughly cleaned and polished for the occasion, and the dim but warm lighting gave the event a very formal feel. I wasn't dressed up for it, but I was fairly safe knowing that most of the attendees had no idea what a human was, or how they dressed.

I found Rarity sitting up on a balcony seat overlooking the room below, and I sat down beside her to grab a glass of water.

"Josh! What do you think of my dress?" She beamed at me. "Fancypants helped me design it!"

It was definitely stunning. The sheer amount of detail alone was something to be rivaled with. "That's definitely a showstopper."

"Why thank you! I'm glad you think so."

We talked for a couple minutes about the day's agenda, but we stopped to look when the crowd fell silent.

Fleur de Lis walked in, with a diamond tiara and the snow white dress that I had shown her earlier, and all eyes were on her as the crowd clapped for her.

I smiled and looked over at Rarity, who was obviously having problems with all of the attention that Fleur was getting.

She bit her lip. "As much as I hate to admit it…that's _almost_ as good as my dress. That doesn't seem like her usual choice though…I wonder who helped her pick that out."

I was having a terribly hard time suppressing a good laugh. "Beats me."

"I wasn't expecting you to-" she looked over at me with a raised eyebrow. "What's so funny?"

"Nothing…nothing at all." I smiled to her.


	24. RTE Chapter 10: Courts and Councils

Chapter 10: Courts and Councils

I was enjoying a good conversation with Rarity when someone tapped me on the shoulder.

A stallion in a suit explained briefly. "Excuse me, you've been requested by Princess Celestia."

"Really? What for?"

"I'm not sure, but it seems that there's a meeting taking place right now."

I turned back to Rarity. "If you'll excuse me, I have some business to attend to."

"Oh don't worry about it!" She said. "I think I'll go look for the others. If I don't find them, I'll be right here waiting."

I walked past the crowds and into a smaller room with amber lighting and a multitude of official looking ponies sitting around a table. Princess Celestia was at the head, and she nodded for me to sit down.

I took up a spot in the corner, away from the suspicious glares I was receiving from those who didn't know me. There was some general leadership related conversations: finances, upkeep, etc.

Finally a subject was brought up that grabbed my attention.

"…Finally, we come to the more pressing issue here. The recurring warp point that is created during the winter months needs to be closed."

"I agree." Princess Celestia said.

She turned to me and waved her hoof. "Everyone, this is Joshua, a human who was led here on accident. Although I thought it was an isolated case and has hardly any chance of recurring, it turns out that more of his kind could show up."

I looked at her with concern. "You know how I got here?"

She nodded. "It was a careless mistake on our part. We tried a new way of creating weather - using unicorn magic instead of the pegasi style of weather engineering – and it turns out that our spells were imperfect. To be precise, the weather we conjured up was created by moving water and snow from other locations, and it seems that we accidently picked you up as well. Since it's a project that has been deemed unfit, there is only one other weather event that is scheduled anytime soon, and that will be you're only chance to go back."

I was heartbroken. "So…you're telling me that my days here are numbered?"

"Unfortunately, that is the case. I'll explain the process briefly. We're going to create a rain storm by moving water from a far away lake, like we did when you first got here, but in reverse. We'll need to do it tomorrow."

"Tomorrow! Don't you think that's short notice?"

One of the dignitaries made an exaggerated cough. "She _is_ the princess, and she makes the rules."

I nodded silently.

"Do you…have any questions?"

I stood up and walked out of the room. "Not really."

Rarity was back at her old table, but with Applejack and Rainbow Dash in tow.

"Josh!" She smiled. "How did it go?"

"That's debatable."

"How did what go?" Rainbow Dash asked.

Applejack prodded her in the side. "Were you listen'n to Rarity at all? She already told ya'!"

Rainbow Dash crossed her arms. "No she didn't…"

"I'm going back."

All three of them looked at me in surprise.

Rarity stood up. "Back? You mean, back to your home…?"

I nodded.

"You must be excited! You can finally sleep in your own bed again!" Rainbow Dash said.

"That's true…"

"You don't seem ah'll that excited." Applejack frowned.

I smiled half heartedly. "I'm having…mixed feelings. Let's put it that way."

The rest of the evening seemed to drag by at a terribly painful pace. I spent some time wandering around the castle grounds on my own, until I met the other three outside, enjoying some of the food.

"Josh!" Pinkie Pie yelled.

"You don't have to be so loud…" I said stiffly.

"Sorry!" She giggled. "What have you been up to?"

No matter how down a person may be, there is no escaping Pinkie's smile. It's just impossible. It just kind of…makes you smile as well.

"I'm headed home tomorrow." I grinned.

"You're _what_?" Fluttershy asked.

"Yeah, I know…that was my reaction too."

"That's great!" Pinkie said as she bounced around. "I'll start plans for a PARTY!"

I shook my head as the ecstatic pony ran off to who knows where.

Twilight didn't say anything, so I left them to go think things over.

There was a little used balcony on the third floor, not too terribly high up, but high enough to give a view over the dimming evening in Equestria.

"_Oh my…what do I tell the folks back at home?" _I sighed to myself. "_Here I was, enjoying the moment, but I never thought about the day when I would have to leave again."_ My mind continued to wander about the various events that had occurred. _"It all went so fast! Why can't I have more time!"_

Hoofsteps behind me brought me out of my thoughts.

"Princess…" I sighed. "It's nice to see you."

"Are you alright?" Princess Celestia asked quietly.

I frowned at her. "You just told me that my last chance to leave a fairytale world is tomorrow. It's not a great feeling, let me tell you…"

Celestia nodded. "Understandable..."

I laughed on the inside. "Princess…"

"Hmm?"

"Thanks for allowing me to enjoy this wonderful land. It's been something that I won't ever forget."

"Think nothing of it. By the way, Pinkie Pie told me that the others were leaving, and that you should hop on the next ride into Ponyville." She winked at me. "It seems that they have something planned for you.

I grinned as I walked alongside the white princess. "I have a feeling about what it could be."

After paying the pilots of the flying carriage, I clambered up onto the top, and took what seemed to be the longest trip of my entire life.

I went over the events of the first trip to Equestria in my head, the awkward introductions, the funny questions, the stunning first look at a world that I had never seen before.

"_Why! Why do I have to leave now! It went by waaaaay too fast!"_ I seethed with anger at the thought of returning, even though I knew it had to happen. I had already intervened with Equestria's timeline more than what was probably safe, but in a selfish way, I didn't care.

"_Maybe…maybe I've seen this the wrong way. If I had to choose between having a short time in Equestria, and not ever getting the chance to go here at all…well, when you put it that way, I'm a heck of a lot more appreciative of everything that I've been through."_

* * *

><p>After a quick cat nap, the carriage touched down just outside of Ponyville, and I started my walk over to the library.<p>

"_Alright, how should I go about this? I know they have something planned for me, but what?"_ I told myself that I was going to peek through the window and find out what it was before they had a chance to surprise me.

"_Well…if they're putting all of this work into it, I guess I should at least let them have the fun of surprising me."_

I came face to face with the library, and after a moment's hesitation, pushed through the doors and into the main room, all the while expecting some sort of loud noise.

None came.

I shifted my gaze around the room, and it was completely empty. "_Now what happened here?"_

"Twilight? Are you here?"

The apprehension left, and I looked off to the side as I opened the door to the next room, and nearly jumped out of my skin when Pinkie Pie shot her party cannon right in front me.

"Welcome to the party!" Pinkie Pie said jovially.

The others were laughing hysterically at my reaction, and Rainbow Dash flew over and gave me a whack on the back. "Gotcha' on that one!"

"Yes, you certainly did." I smiled.

Rarity waved at me. "I know you already ate, but you must enjoy some of this _wonderful_ food!"

Going against all of the good habits that my parents tried to instill in me, I went ahead and indulged myself in some of the most caloric foods Equestria had to offer. Cake, ice cream, candies that I had never seen before, it was all here, and it was _awesome_.

"So," Rainbow Dash said with a mouthful of food. "Now that you've been here a while, what have you liked the _most _about Equestria?"

"That's a hard one. I think it would have to be…you guys actually."

They all smiled at that, and but Rarity in particular gave me a smirk. "You sure know how to compliment, don't you?"

After a series of games, stories, and general conversation, we all walked upstairs to gaze out at the stars.

I sat down on the floor near Twilight's bed, and all the other ponies gradually took up spots around the room.

Rainbow Dash stood next to the window and watched a floating cloud drift by. "You know, we pegasi go through all of the work of moving the clouds, and it's a crazy long job! But when I think about it, Princess Luna has to move all the stars by herself! Wouldn't that get tiring?"

Spike, who came in from the other room, shook his head vigorously. "Just look at those stars! It might be difficult, but what if you could control all those twinkling lights?"

"Yeah, I see what you're saying…"

After a half an hour, the silence made it obvious that I was one of the last ones awake. Twilight was still stargazing, so I poked her on the shoulder. "Hey Twilight, don't you think you should get some sleep?"

"There's just never enough time in a day to do everything."

I gestured like a scholar would. "And that, dear Twilight, is why _tomorrow_ exists."

Twilight chuckled, and she finally agreed to turn in for the night.

I leaned against the back of her bed frame, but Twilgiht tugged me over to her side. "You don't have to sleep on the floor you know."

"Twilight, I'm fine, you've done enough-"

She pulled me up off the floor and dropped me on the opposite end of her bed. "For my peace of mind, please at least have a comfortable night's sleep."

I sighed and tucked Twilight in. "Whatever you say."

I began stroking her mane like I had done a long time back, and I realized that this would be my last chance to do so before I left. "_All good things must come to an end I guess…"_

Although it was depressing to think about at first, the smile on the now sleeping Twilight's face gave me a satisfaction that I wouldn't have missed for the world.

And after checking and tucking in other ponies plus Spike, I fell asleep for the last time in Equestria, right alongside Twilight.

* * *

><p>Author's Notes:<p>

I'm back from my vacation! (Actually, it was finals week, and I had some seriously huge projects to finish.) However much I love writing, college takes priority. That's just how it has to be...but it paid off! I got an early confirmation from my English 102 professor saying that she can't see me getting anything less than an A on the finals, and if I ace it perfectly, then I'll have a completely PERFECT English 102 score (all 100's)!


	25. RTE Chapter 11: Finale

Chapter 11: Finale

I woke up before the sun even started to rise.

I was restless, not wanting to miss my sleep, but not wanting to miss any time on my last day in Equestria. Of course, none of the other ponies were up, but that made no difference to me. I wanted to soak it all in while I had the chance.

Smiling to myself, I leaned back against the wall and rubbed Twilight's back. "_If only we had met sooner…I wanted to get to know you better."_

The scene in front of me was picturesque. The air was calm, silent, still, and thin rays of soft sunlight started peeking through the window, and I watched small particles of dust flow and spin around in the air. The mares, although they were dead to the world as they slept, had an essence of peace around them. They smiled slightly in their sleep, as if they had nothing to worry about, or as if nothing in the universe was moving against them.

"_You guys truly do live in the best place in the universe."_ I thought to myself.

Twilight made a noise next to me, and she rolled over onto her side in a rather comical fashion.

I'm not sure if it was just a random, spur of the moment thing, or if I truly found it humorous, but I had to suppress a good laugh. Twilight must have heard something, because she looked up at me with half open eyes and frazzled hair.

It took her a moment to register who I was, but after she sorted out her thoughts, she said "Oh, I must have gotten up late. Let me start breakfast or-"

Before she could finish, I started smoothing her mane out, and she dropped back onto her pillow with a sleepy smile.

"_No need for that, nopony else is awake."_ I whispered.

"_Oh good…"_ she replied with a content sigh. "_I might sleep for just a few more minutes…"_

After a couple minutes, Twilight was back asleep, so decided to get up and figure out what we were going to do for some early morning food. Surprisingly, Spike had the same idea, and he was already up fixing some form of muffins on his own.

I poked my head in the door. "Do you need some help?"

"If you can breathe fire, then sure. If not, then I'm not sure if you can cook these." He said jovially.

"You know, there _is_ an oven…" I motioned with my hand.

He made a funny face. "That's cheating. Anypony can make muffins in an oven. A _dragon_ making your muffins-now there's something you don't see every day."

I scratched my head. "Actually, that's something that I haven't seen on _any_ day back at home."

"That's right!" He exclaimed. "Today's your big day, isn't it?"

"It is, and I have no real idea as to how it's even going to work." I frowned. "I guess I should get that figured out…"

After Spike and I chatted idly for a while, one well rested Applejack walked into the kitchen, all the while following her nose.

"What are y'all makin' in here? It smells great!" She asked wishfully.

I picked up one of the muffins and examined it. "You'll have to thank Spike for this one; I had nothing to do with it."

Applejack gave us a hopeful grin. "Spike, I've got hand it to ya'…those smell fantastic. You reckon we should get the others up for breakfast?"

"I don't see why not."

Applejack got the rest of the Mane Six up, and I went into the bathroom to clean myself up. I hastily brushed my hair off to the side, splashed myself in the face with some water, and hurried back out to see the others.

"Hey, your back!" Pinkie Pie smiled. "Now we can eat!"

"You guys didn't have to wait, besides, the muffins are best warm!"

As the ponies dug in and started raving over the Spike's food, the little dragon stood off to the side of the room, arms crossed and a confident smile on his face.

"_Nice work."_ I whispered to him. "_You've got a good thing going here."_

"Hehe, thanks." He replied sheepishly.

"_No, I mean it. Look at those smiles! You're obviously doing something right!"_

Twilight waved a hoof to get my attention. "Princess Celestia should be here by eleven, so make sure you're ready."

"Eleven! That's only a couple hours away!"

"My point exactly. I don't want to keep Celestia waiting so get everything in order while you have some time."

I dashed up the stairs and started collecting whatever belongings I had. Notes, clothes, any odds and ends all went into a bag. I was a little dubious that they would actually stay intact during the duration of my jump back to Earth, but I had to try at the very least.

"Oh where is it…" I mumbled to myself.

Something floated by my face, and I turned to see Twilight at the top of the stairs. "Is this what you're looking for?"

"Yes, yes it is. Thank you." I stammered.

I sat down on the floor and looked at the piece of paper in my hands, reminiscing about all that had occurred in the prior weeks. "I know, it was silly of me, but I always overlooked this day. I just ignored the fact that I would have to go home, but here I am on the day of my return, kicking myself for not doing more while I had the time."

Twilight walked over to my side and read my notes over my shoulder. She blushed a little, then regained her composure.

"You really think that highly of us?" she asked in an innocent tone.

I was about to hide the document, but I realized that she had already seen enough of it to know where it was going. "Yes, I do."

"But we're just acting like…ourselves. It's nothing special! We're not acting or anything."

"And that's _precisely_ what makes it so special. Where I come from, these sorts of character traits seem to be few and far between."

She laid her head against my shoulder and looked up at me. "I know Princess Celestia is going to fix this accidental mix up, but I'm going to try and find a legitimate way to meet you again. Having you here has been kind of fun."

Those hours went by so fast! One moment I'm having breakfast, and the next moment, Rainbow Dash yells "She's here guys!"

We all walked out to the town center, where the Princess' escorts were waiting.

Twilight ran up and gave Princess Celestia a quick hug. "It seems like I've been seeing more of you lately!"

"It certainly feels that way." Princess Celestia said with a smile.

A dark streak crossed the sky, and Luna's ride touched down next to Celestia's.

"Alright, now that we're all here, let's start." Celestia said. "Are you ready?"

I couldn't answer that. I had priorities back on Earth, but it killed me to leave the Mane Six behind.

I simply nodded my head.

"Good, then this is how it will work: We're going to have our designated unicorns start teleporting you to the other side of Ponyville, and when they do, I am going to apply an entirely separate spell to your body, and you should return home."

"That's it?"

"I know, it's a poor explanation. It sounds simple in theory, but it's going to be harder to perform than it sounds."

We all walked to one end of Ponyville, with a group of unicorns in royal attire following us.

"Have fun back at home!" Rainbow Dash said.

"Yeah, don't forget about us though!" Pinkie Pie smiled.

"Ha, I don't think I could ever forget this!" I replied.

Applejack gave me a whack on the back. "You've done good here partner! Thanks for all your help."

"Agreed." Rarity nodded. "You've been quite the gentleman."

"Bye…It was nice meeting you." Fluttershy whispered.

Twilight looked like she was going to cry. "I'll find some way to talk to you again." She said soberly. "But until then…"

She gave me a quick hug, and the others joined in. It was one of the best feelings a person could experience. "_So THIS is what euphoria is!" _I laughed to myself. "And I believe if anypony can figure out a way to do it, it will be you Twilight."

The ponies stepped back behind the princesses, and the unicorns took up their positions around the sides.

Everything seemed to slow down at this point. The air was sweet and drifted lazily around the trees, the birds were singing, and the almost noon sun bathed Equestria in a brilliant light. I couldn't have asked for a better final scene to remember Equestria by.

It's in moments like these that all of the questions that you _should _have asked come flooding back to you. There were what felt like a million things I still didn't know, and it was killing me that I hadn't asked the questions earlier.

With a wave of her hoof, the Princess's guards focused on me, and I started to disappear from view.

We exchanged quick goodbyes, and I waved a quick goodbye to the group. Luna even said a quick goodbye, which I was grateful for.

In a brilliant, almost blinding flash of light, I turned into a small blip in the universe, and started flying at a blazing speed through Ponyville. I was freaked out about colliding with a building, but I was phasing through them as if the walls didn't exist.

I reached a point where all color drained from my vision, and I was surrounded by an infinite plain of white. No shapes, no color, just white.

I started to hyperventilate. "_What if I'm stuck here? Nobody will find me here! Please tell me that Celestia didn't-"_

A single point appeared on the horizon, and I was suddenly engulfed in a world of color again. I my feet gently touched down right in front of my doorway, and I jiggled the doorknob.

"_Gah, it's locked. Where are my…keys."_ I gave myself a mental facepalm. "_Of course, I left them back in Equestria."_

Just then, a little sphere of light floated by, and my keys popped into existence and clattered on the sidewalk.

I picked them up, and there was a note attached to them.

"_Dear Josh:_

_I had no idea what these were, but they appeared the moment you left. I figured they must be yours, since nopony here knows what they are._

_And I wanted to let you know that I've already began studying so that maybe, just maybe, we can meet again someday. Until then, don't forget about us._

_Your friend,_

_Twilight Sparkle"_

I stared up at the sky, and watched the clouds drift by.

"_Twilight, I'm rooting for you. I have this feeling that we'll be seeing each other sometime in the future."_

I stepped inside, breathed in the familiar scent of my own home, and headed directly upstairs. I had no idea if my idea would ever be completed, but if…no, _when_ Twilight succeeded in bringing me back, I wanted to have something ready. Grabbing a pen and paper, and started writing.

"_Dear Twilight Sparkle…"_


	26. A Final Word from the Author

Before I say anything, I have to thank all of you who stuck with me as I wrote this story. There were a few rewrites and a couple silly mistakes, and I honestly thought that nopony was even going to glance at the story when I first published it. It turns out I was wrong!

I hope that this story was as fun for you to read as it was for me to write; I know that I had plenty of fun conjuring up adventures in my head and writing them all down.

I've already started a couple other stories that are currently in various stages of progression, and I'll start publishing those once I'm close to being finished with them. I just want to get a head start so I can post them on a regular basis. Hopefully I can expand more on the next stories, since I've been itching to move on from this story (which was K+ rated) to something more free.

Once again, thank you (yes, you, the reader), for taking the time out of your day to escape to Equestria for a little while.

Until next time,

-CloudFyre


End file.
